Caught on Tape

After listening to the tape recording, New Times sought clarification from Stanley Price, Masoud Shojaee (pronounced SHOH-jee), and Ralph Arza. Initially Shojaee and Arza declined to listen to the tape or answer questions about it. Price was more cooperative and agreed to be interviewed. New Times later faxed questions to Shojaee and Arza, as well as followup questions to Price. Shojaee and Arza responded to those queries (see "Questions and Responses"), but Price did not. Subsequently an attorney representing Price sent New Times a letter titled "Demand to Cease and Desist and for Delivery of the Illegal Tape Recording." (See "Cease and Desist")

The interview with Stanley Price, which was monitored by his colleague Brian Adler, took place at their downtown Miami law office Monday, April 4. Below is a verbatim transcription of that interview.

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The Stanley Price Interview

Stanley Price: Frank, I -- I will tell you I am very upset about having some phone conversation/line tapped. It's illegal.

Francisco Alvarado: That's totally understandable. I'm just here to let you know that I don't know the source of it, but I can tell you that we did receive it legally. The circumstances of how the tape was made, is I guess --

Price: Well, I'm not doubting -- I'm saying the tape itself is illegal. You, you can get stolen goods too and you may have received them as a gift, but they're still stolen goods. But let me hear the tape.

Here's a transcript of the tape so you can follow along and hear the tape.

[Tape begins]

Price [upon hearing his voice on the tape]: That's me.

[Tape continues to end]

And that's it. That's, um, you can have that copy. That's for you.

Price: Okay.

Basically, I mean, we got the tape. As far as we know, Rebecca Wakefield received the tape at the office is all I can tell you. And I can tell you that my boss says we got this legally. And that's Jim Mullin, our editor.

Price: What does that mean?

Well, I can't -- I don't, I can't tell you anything else other than that.

Price: You, you have to understand the context of what this is about.

And that's why I'm here -- to ask you the context of it.

Price: What happens is that Shoma Homes purchased the Ryder property. The Ryder property is a large piece of property, uh, owned by Ryder Corporation; they had their corporate headquarters on that property. The property was part of a development of regional impact. What Shoma wanted to do with the property is to convert the property into a town center which is a mixed-use type of development to include residential, uh, retail, office, and perhaps some public amenities such as public buildings. Uh, when we were discussing what is the best way of getting this through in regard to Doral, Ralph Arza's name came up. Ralph used to be the chairman of [the community council] at Doral. Uh, Ralph is very, very close with the members of Doral [City] Council. And I advised Shoma that they would have to file a comprehensive-master-plan amendment. But at the time we were going to do this, jurisdiction was with Dade County. And the question is: How do we best get this thing expedited because Masoud [Shojaee] had to close on this property very quickly.

[Price's cell phone rings]

Price: Give me a second. Hello? Yes, Masoud, how are you? Good. Am I awake? That is an interesting question. In about an hour I will be awake. Yes. I'm, I'm still here at the restaurant. And I, I assume you are not coming. Yeah, let's play golf. Can I call you back? Are you at the office? I'll call you at work. Okay. Bye-bye. Sorry.

I'm sorry -- jurisdiction, you said the county had it?