Well-respected Florida deputy police chief fired for taking picture with Dem representative's political opponent

WEST PALM BEACH, FL - Here's the moral of this story: Don't take a harmless picture with someone belonging to the opposite political party to your mayor and potentially running against his hero.

That has cost a Florida deputy police chief his job.

Meet Mayor Keith James of West Palm Beach, an unimpressive political hack who has somehow been twice elected mayor of this southeastern Florida city. James has never done anything impressive in the five years he’s served as the city’s mayor and only was elected because he was endorsed by Rep. Lois Frankel (D-FL), who serves in the US House of Representatives. Frankel is the former mayor of West Palm Beach. 

According to WPBF, the well-respected and now-former Deputy Police Chief of the West Palm Beach Police Department, Rick Morris, was terminated from his position in December. Morris, who last year was named Chief of the Year in the State of Florida must have committed an egregious offense to warrant losing his job, correct? 

Sadly, that is not the case. Morris’s sin? He took a picture with a Republican congressional candidate who might be facing Frankel in the November election. After he was forced to resign over the picture, Morris spoke to WPBF Investigative Reporter Terri Parker. 

“The citizens need to know what really happened to me because I haven’t been in a position where I could tell them,” Morris told Parker. 

“I was chief of the year last year for the whole state,” Morris, a decorated police officer with over 43 years of service, continued. 

Last December, Morris was at a Palm Beach Police fundraising event at the Breakers Hotel in the city. He believes a photo taken at that event didn’t sit well with the illustrious mayor and led to his separation from the city. 

Morris took a picture at the event with a candidate running in the Republican primary to challenge Frankel, who at 76 should probably be heading to a retirement home with Joe Biden. Alas in our system of government, service in Congress is pretty much a lifetime appointment. 

Morris took a series of photos with other individuals at the fundraiser and, it should be noted, was not in uniform. Morris posted one of those pictures to Facebook of himself standing alongside Deborah Adeimy, the Republican seeking the nomination to oppose Frankel. 

“This young lady asked me for a photograph. I said ‘fine, I don’t see any issue with that,’” he told Parker. “And it was put on social media,” Morris continued. 

The photo was captioned “An intelligent young lady running for Congress.” 

Pretty basic and not exactly an endorsement of Ms. Adeimy. He was simply giving his opinion on Ms. Aidemy after having spoken with her. 

Unfortunately for Deputy Chief Morris, the hack mayor didn’t see it that way. The morning after the Facebook post, both Morris and Palm Beach Police Chief Frank Adderly received a text from James asking, “Is this Lois’ [Frankel’s] opponent?” 

Neither Morris nor Chief Adderly knew that Adeimy was running against Frankel, only that she was potentially running for Congress.

 Morris told James he had removed the photo while adding, “I have always supported Lois to the fullest.” 

In response, James responded, “Unbelievably tone deaf,” to which Morris responded, “I apologize.” 

“Not sure that is enough,” was James’ terse reply. 

Only two days before Christmas and about two weeks after the photo was posted, James called Deputy Chief Morris and informed him he was out of a job. 

“So was posting that Facebook picture what ended your career?” Parker asked Morris. 

“It destroyed my career. It had a huge impact on my family and myself,” Morris replied. 

So to sum up the incident, a highly decorated, well-respected police professional takes a picture with someone and speaks highly of her intelligence, but because she’s a potential political opponent of the mayor’s political soulmate, he loses his job? On what planet is this anywhere near fair? 

Morris was obviously stunned by the separation and hired an attorney, who said Morris had not violated any police department or city policies, but had made a “political misstep.” That should not have gotten him let go. 

Seemingly that he was in some way endorsing this individual for her run to become a congresswoman and to unseat Lois Frankel,” said Attorney Stuart Kaplan. 

WPBF reached out to Frankel’s office to see if any pressure was brought to bear on James to fire Morris, which she denied in a statement:

“Personnel decisions for West Palm’s Police Department are entirely up to Mayor James and never played a role in those decisions and was not aware of the situation.” 

Kaplan, however, believes James was trying to protect Fankel. 

“They were more concerned about protecting Lois Frankel and what her perception of what the optics could be from her side,” Kaplan said. 

When Parker reached out to the mayor’s office about the termination of his employment, his communications director deflected and claimed she should examine Morris’ personnel and Internal Affairs files, which she had already done. 

Inside those files, Parker found nothing spectacular and certainly nothing that justified separating Deputy Chief Morris from the department. The only complaints found were two by the same woman who alleged Morris obtained his college degree through illegitimate means. Both complaints were deemed unfounded by the state attorney’s office and internal affairs. 

The file also made mention of why Morris was terminated. 

James, however, has a history of ethics issues. In 2023, a local business owner filed a complaint against James alleging he used his power as mayor to retaliate against him for filing to run against James as mayor. WPBF reported that Rodney Mayo alleged James was responsible for the city revoking and denying permits for special events he had been sponsoring in the city’s downtown for years. 

The city also announced it would not renew Mayo’s 10-year Subculture Coffee House lease, the latter of which prompted Mayo to file an ethics complaint, claiming retaliation for his filing to run for mayor. 

The city’s ethics commission let James off the hook, claiming there was no evidence James retaliated against Mayo.

James is also facing a three-year ethics inquiry after the city awarded an $8 million no-bid contract to his friend Willie Perez shortly after James was elected mayor. While the contract was rescinded after public outcry, the ethics investigation found probable cause and directed the state attorney general advocate to continue pursuing evidence. 

 Last year, after a new ethics commission was appointed in the state capital of Tallahassee, the commission dropped the complaint, again claiming there was no evidence that James acted improperly. 

For Deputy Chief Morris, however, none of that matters after he was forced to leave a job he loved. He believes deep down he was terminated because of the Facebook photo, a feeling shared by his attorney. 

“Terri, when I look at the picture that was posted and then the ensuing text messages that were followed [sic], there is no doubt he was let go because of that single isolated event of posting a harmless, innocent picture on Facebook,” said Kaplan. 

For Morris, he is still baffled by the incident. 

“And you know what? I’ll give the mayor an opportunity to come back at any time and say what I did wrong because in my 43-year career, it’s not there,” Morris said. 

Kaplan was able to negotiate a resignation for Morris instead of a termination, and noted his client is currently looking for a job. 

James has refused to comment on why Morris was let go or whether his separation was because he posted an innocent picture of himself with someone who happened to be a potential opponent of his political ally.