DeFede

MIAMI (CBS4) ― On the same day he accepted the offer to be superintendent of the nation's fourth largest school district; Alberto Carvalho acknowledged to CBS4 News that he had a "playful" relationship with the former school's reporter for the Miami Herald.

"I'm a gregarious, playful person and she was a playful person," Carvalho said of former Herald reporter Tania deLuzuriaga.

Carvalho, 43, still denied that he had an affair with the 27-year-old Herald reporter, who now works at the Boston Globe. But he backed away from the assertion that he made earlier this week that the emails from deLuzuriaga, which suggest a romantic relationship, were "concocted" and "manipulated." Instead, he said Friday morning, he may not have seen all of the emails from deLuzuriaga and that they may, in fact, be real.

"I cannot speak to the intention of the person who may or may not have written these emails," he said. "It is possible I didn't read them."

Some of the alleged emails are flirtatious. "Will you be completely offended if I leap into your arms the next time I see you (place permitting)?" one of the alleged emails state. "Like in the movies, with arms and legs wrapped around."

The email, dated August 7, 2007, was signed "Love ,love, love you. xoxoxo"

Carvalho said he did not recall whether he saw that particular email, saying it was from more than a year ago.

One set of the alleged emails is more sexually explicit and Carvalho does appear to respond to them via his BlackBerry.

Asked Friday by CBS4 News if he believed deLuzuriaga had romantic feelings toward him, Carvalho said: "I can't speak to her emotions."

"Sometimes she was jovial in her approach," he added. "I never would have entertained taking it to that next level because I was not open to that."

DeLuzuriaga has refused to comment on the emails. The Miami Herald said it is doing its own investigation, but has said they are unable to verify the authenticity of the emails because they date back more than a year.

Carvalho has also asked for an internal review of the school system's computer system to determine if the emails are real. He also continued to maintain that the email he allegedly sent to a member of the school board, Perla Tabares Hantman, in which he appears to be secretly feeding information to Hantman that would be embarrassing to his boss, Crew, was "manufactured" and is not a real email.

Carvalho said he has not seen all of the alleged emails supposedly sent by deLuzuriaga, but he notes that from what he has seen, he thought it was significant that he did not reply to too many of them.

"It doesn't seem to me it was the kind of thing I would respond to, if they were written," he noted. "I would laugh about it, maybe be annoyed by it, but I wouldn't respond to it."

Later he also said: "There has never been anything inappropriate [between him and deLuzuriaga]. Nor do I feel she ever crossed a professional line with me."

Carvalho provided CBS4 News copies of his schedule for days in which the emails suggest Carvalho and deLuzuriaga were discussing taking possible trips together. The logs show that he was in Florida in a variety of meetings when the trips supposedly took place.

The Miami Herald reported Friday that in the summer of 2007 deLuzuriaga did notify her editor at the time that she was going biking with Carvalho and others. The Herald said the editor warned deLuzuriaga to maintain an arm's length relationship with Carvalho.

The emails raise as many problems for The Miami Herald as they do Carvalho. The Herald has noted that it has begun a review of all of deLuzuriaga writings during the time in question to determine if her stories show any bias or favoritism toward Carvalho.

A search of the Herald database shows deLuzuriaga wrote at least 24 stories in which Carvalho was either quoted or mentioned.

Carvalho said many of the questions now being raised about his interaction with deLuzuriaga, venture into the realm of "private issues" and he was uncomfortable discussing them in detail.  "They fall into that private universe,"he added.

Carvalho said he spoke to deLuzuriaga on Wednesday.  He said she had sent him an email regarding the rumors that were beginning to surface about them. He said they also talked by phone and that she was "very upset."

"She expressed concern as to what it would mean to her professionally," he said.

Asked whether he encouraged her to remain silent, he said "absolutely not."

"I encouraged her to tell the truth," he said.

(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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