Ex-Boyfriend Accused of Attacking Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dies by Suicide

The lawyer representing Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis’s ex-boyfriend thought his client was on a path toward resolving the charges he faced in an alleged domestic incident involving the mayor and getting the treatment he needed. Just yesterday, in fact, the no-contact order barring Daniel Curran from seeing Trantalis was eased.

So Philip Johnston was shocked to learn this morning that his client “Danny,” who turned 35 today, had died by suicide. He described Curran as a “very kind, sensitive person.”

“This is a profoundly sad situation,” Johnson said in an email to New Times, adding that the former couple had met just a day earlier and happily discussed the future.

The Fort Lauderdale Police Department reports that officers responded to Coral Ridge Towers at 9:15 a.m. Thursday for a possible suicide after a man reportedly jumped from the building. The individual, the police say, was later identified as Curran.

Last November, Curran was arrested on charges of violating an injunction for protection against domestic violence and battery on a person 65 years of age or older for an alleged domestic violence incident involving the Fort Lauderdale mayor. The pair had been living together since March 2025.

Trantalis and Curran both attended a court hearing yesterday regarding an existing no-contact order related to the November 2025 domestic violence incident. After the mayor testified that he believed his former partner was no longer a threat, Judge Susan Alspector modified the no-contact order to allow digital and telephone contact, as well as contact in public places, according to a recent court filing.

According to the arrest report from the November 1 incident, Curran had pushed Trantalis, grabbed his leg, pulled him down, and then dragged him “approximately 15 feet” across a road. The mayor suffered injuries to his wrist, left leg, and right knee. Curran was arrested four days after the incident, when Fort Lauderdale officers spotted him in the mayor’s driveway.

Two months prior to the arrest, the 72-year-old mayor was granted a temporary protection order against Curran after he claimed that he threw objects at him, pulled a knife on him, demanded that he leave the house, and kicked furniture. Yet, Trantalis later allowed Curran to move back into his Fort Lauderdale home in hopes that he would seek counseling, according to the Sun Sentinel.

During Curran’s first appearance last year, Trantalis told the judge he thought reconnecting with him would help rehabilitate him and “steer him into counseling and mental health treatment.”

“And I failed at that, and at the end, this past weekend, he threw me to the ground,” he testified. “He committed everything that’s in the information with regard to the violent act against me. And I realized that there was no hope for this relationship.”

Earlier this year, the mayor requested that prosecutors drop the case, writing that he believed the active permanent injunction was sufficient for his safety and that Curran would not engage in criminal activity again.

However, the case against Curran moved forward. At the request of the Broward State Attorney’s Office, it was being handled by the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office to avoid any conflict of interest.

In a statement today, Trantalis says he learned of Curran’s death “with profound sorrow.”

“He was a loving individual, and my sympathies go out to his family,” he says. “Perhaps now, the pain he endured will subside. May he rest in peace.”