An instructor at San Souci Tennis center in North Miami is accused of using the tax funded tennis center as the hunting ground for his sex partners; one of which he is accused of videotaping illegally.
For 12 years, Philippe LeDan was living with a successful interior designer, Alex Karolemeas, who says she thought they had the perfect relationship. She says they were inseparable, attended lots of fun events together and went on exotic vacations.
She says LeDan made her feel special, lavishing her with cards and personal notes, declaring “you are all I ever wanted” and vowing to “do my best to make you happy.” Karolemeas says the life she thought she had ended when a phone call for her came in on LeDan’s phone.
“When he handed me the phone,” Karolemeas told Team 6 Investigators, “I saw text messages and pictures of himself he was sending to other women, naked pictures of himself.”
It turned out LeDan had lots of pictures in his phone, some of them flirtatious pictures of his high school age students. It turned out LeDan had videos, too, explicitly graphic videos of sex acts with clients from San Souci, some of them the moms of his younger students.
One video starts in black, as though the camera is in a bag. Next, the viewer hears fumbling, then Le Dan pulls his arm back and there’s a clear shot appears of his intimate moments with his client.
Fabian Correa worked at Sans Souci for years and says LeDan’s exploits were not a secret.
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“Management knew what was going on,” he said. “ Everybody knew it. It was common knowledge. We would talk about it. All of us.”
He says LeDan showed him a video, too. Correa says he complained to tennis center director, Ross Dubins.
“I said we have to control what’s going on there,” Correa says he told Dubins. “For example, I had a lady come in there who was sleeping with him and she made a huge, big scene with Phil and I had to walk out because it got so heated.”
Dubins did not return Team 6 Investigators’ calls so we paid him a visit. Team 6 Investigator, Trina Robinson introduced herself and asked if he was aware of LeDan’s sexual activities with his clients.
“No, of course not,” Dubins told her.
But besides Correa’s complaints, Team 6 Investigators found two other complaints. One incident report indicates a man went to San Souci last January and told LeDan to “stay away from my wife…”
Another incident report that same month says another man interrupted a lesson LeDan was giving to two young boys – while their grandmother watched – and started “yelling at Philippe” and accused him of “having an affair with his wife.” The man reportedly even put “his hand on Philippe’s throat.”
On February 26th, LeDan was arrested and taken to jail, charged with a felony count of video voyeurism. Dubins finally banned him from Sans Souci.
But Team 6 investigators found him teaching tennis somewhere else, the Ives Estates Tennis Center in Miami. Robinson asked him why he was no longer working at Sans Souci and if he was videotaping sex acts with his clients. He would say only that he could not answer her questions.
He would not talk to Team 6 Investigators, but according to the arrest report, he told the arresting officer he recorded the “victim without her knowledge for his own enjoyment because he likes porn.”
Tom Cannes, the director of Ives Estates Tennis Center was supposed to run a background check on LeDan before allowing his to teach at the county facility. However, the county concedes he failed to do that.
As for Karolemeas, she said speaking publicly was tough emotionally and embarrassing. She did it, she says, because she need him to stop.
“I need him to stop violating women,” she said. “I need him to stop videotaping women. I feel a certain responsibility. I need to bring this forward and make sure that he stops.”
