RICHMOND -- The Richmond Times-Dispatch fired a reporter for a May 17 story that the newspaper said contained fabrications and has begun an investigation into his other work.

Paul Bradley, who worked in the newspaper's Northern Virginia bureau, was dismissed Friday, the newspaper reported Saturday in an editor's note to readers.

Bradley, 51, said in a statement e-mailed to The Associated Press, "What I did was wrong and an indefensible journalistic sin. I cut corners to put some color into a story and I am now paying a dear price."

Bradley apologized to readers but said "the punishment far exceeds the crime."

The newspaper said the offending article was about a center for primarily Latino day laborers. Bradley's fabrications, the Times-Dispatch said, included an interview that did not occur with the site director and the misrepresentation that he had visited the center by using a Herndon dateline.

The newspaper was alerted of the alleged fabrications by the director of the center.

"We received an e-mail from the person who was not interviewed," said managing editor Louise Seals.

A description in the story of 50 workers sitting at picnic tables waiting for work was taken from The Washington Post, the Times-Dispatch said, based on an early May story.

The newspaper said further examination will continue with an outside consultant reviewing Bradley's work over recent years.

Seals declined to discuss Bradley's employment with the newspaper, citing confidentiality concerns.