Miami Lakes Mayor Michael Pizzi is having a tremendous run of luck in the courts.
First, he was acquitted of federal bribery charges after being
caught in an FBI sting applying for grants he allegedly knew were bogus. Then he got the court to agree with him on having Gov. Rick Scott lift his suspension from office. Then, he won a court battle to be reinstated as mayor of the small Northwest municipality of 30,800.
Last week, a Circuit Court judge denied the town’s motion to dismiss Pizzi’s lawsuit for recovery of legal fees — in his civil case. The city has 10 days to respond with other motions on why they aren’t liable.
Michael “Muscles” Pizzi has sued the town of Miami Lakes for around $3.2 million — $700,000 in the civil case and $2.5 million in the criminal case, in which he availed himself of no fewer than seven attorneys.
Read related story: Michael Pizzi sues Miami Lakes for $3.2 million in legal fees
Town leaders are fighting it on two fronts: As they battle in court against paying anything they are also still going after the municipality’s insurance provider, which has already denied both claims for different reasons. For the federal bribery case, they don’t cover criminal legal costs. And for the civil case, they can’t cover it if both parties are the insured. Both Muscles and former Mayor Wayne Slaton — who voters chose in a special election after Pizzi’s August 2013 arrest and who fought the return of his nemesis — are covered by the same insurance company.
The criminal legal fees case is awaiting to be reassigned after Miami-Dade Circuit Judge John Schlesinger recused himself because of his relationship with Pizzi. But Miami Lakes Town Attorney Raul Gastesi said the city is going to fight that case, too. First because they seem ridiculously high and arbitrary (read: artificially inflated) and two because part of the case had nothing to do with Mayor Pizzi’s duties in Miami Lakes.
When Pizzi was arrested, he was charged with misconduct and bribery because he had supposedly 
taken money — including a couple thousand left in a bathroom at a pool hall and $3,000 handed to him by a lobbyist wearing a wire in his office closet — to secure grant applications from Miami Lakes and Medley, where he was the town attorney at the time.
“Why should we pay for what is alleged to be criminal conduct in another city, another position,” Gastesi asks, adding that the bills reviewed so far do not add up. “In some cases, the bills aren’t clear. We are looking to see how they came up with these numbers,” Gastesi told Political Cortadito.
“The sums that are being sought in the criminal case, we believe, are way beyond reasonable… we’re going to take depositions to find out what actually is going on here,” Gastesi said.
Well, one thing might be the fact that everybody and his mother is getting paid. From the original seven on the criminal case, he now has two more on his legal dream team for a total of nine members Clay Reiner, David Reiner, Monica Tirado, Benedict P. Kuehne, Edward Shohat, Michael T. Davis, Ralf Rodriguez, Kent Harrison Robbins, and Mark Herron.
Read related story: Michael Pizzi and his legal dream time — at what cost to who?
The town has retained one attorney, Onier Llopis, as outside counsel on both civil cases.
Pizzi did not return calls and an email to request comment. But his many lawyers, in a statemnt, called Wednesday’s ruling by Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Jorge E. Cueto a “significant rebuke” to the town’s motion to dismiss efforts to recover “legal fees he incurred in the Town’s ill-fated and unsuccessful effort to prevent his resumption to the Office of Mayor once he was unanimously acquitted of all federal charges.”
“Using strong language to defeat the Town’s objection to Mayor Pizzi’s legal entitlement to recovery of fees and costs, Circuit Judge Cueto reminded the Town that Mayor Pizzi “had to institute these suits to ‘defend’ his right to be mayor purposeful (and ultimately futile) obstruction,” said the statement from attorney Ben Kuehne, the lead lawyer on Pizzi’s million dollar dream team, who has a penchant for the drama.
Clay Reiner, a spokesman for the legal team that includes David Reiner, said they were confident that Pizzi will recover all the fees and costs incurred by the town’s “intransigence and insistence on the poor legal advice,” we’re guessing from Gastesi.
“The town has wasted enough of the taxpayer’s money filing frivolous and unsuccessful objections to Mayor Pizzi’s legitimate, constitutionally guaranteed reimbursement claim. The town should cease and desist this reckless abandonment of its legal responsibility,” Reiner said in the statement.
Pizzi, too, released a written statement: “In light of this ruling, it is my profound hope that my adversaries on the town council finally stop fighting the inevitable result of this case, and stop wasting taxpayer dollars by opposing this legitimate claim.”
Meanwhile, the meter keeps running on the legal fees.
Michael Pizzi wins Round 1 vs Miami Lakes for legal costs added by Ladra on
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