UPDATED: Talk about kicking a man when he’s down.
First, former Miami Lakes Mayor Michael “Muscles” Pizzi loses 
his re-election just a couple of weeks ago, getting an abysmal 23% against newly elected Mayor Manny Cid, who was a councilman. Then — boom! — a Miami-Dade court tells him Wednesday that the town is not on the hook for $2.5 million in legal fees incurred during his 2013 federal bribery trial.
Circuit Court Judge Antonio Marin found that Pizzi was not acting in an official capacity as mayor at the time he was arrested so the town is not liable for his representation. Pizzi and his attorneys have 20 days to amend the complaint — and they will.
“The court spoke. They dismissed the case. The burden is theirs now,” Cid told Ladra Thursday. “My focus is to move the city forward and one way or another we need closure on this.”
Read related story: Miami Lakes voters toss Michael Pizzi out for Manny Cid
Cid told me that the city had put aside about $600,000 in this year’s budget for the litigation and possible settlement and that he’d like to free that money up to use it elsewhere in the city.
But this is far from over, folks.
And Ladra is finding it hard to believe that they won’t make the case that Pizzi was, indeed, acting in his official capacity as mayor when he took bribes from undercover FBI agents posing as AmeriCorps officials ready to dole out federal grants that would never make it to the cities they were intended for. He would never have been targetted or bribed if he weren’t the mayor.
Pizzi, who called Ladra on Thursday after the first draft of this story was posted, said I was right: This was going to be the crux of their amendment.
“The only reason I was arrested is because I was the mayor,” Pizzi said. “If I wasn’t mayor, there’d be no bribe, there’d be no crime.”
Pizzi was arrested in August 2013 after a year-long sting set up by the 
FBI to specifically target local electeds, according to an informant who later spilled the beans. But Pizzi and former Sweetwater Mayor Manny “Maraña” Maroño were the only electeds charged after undercover agents caught them accepting cash and campaign contributions in exchange for getting grant requests passed through their own and other cities.
While Pizzi was found not guilty, Maroño entered a plea deal and got a 37-month sentence.
Guess he didn’t have the million dollar lawyers.
Read related story: Spies, lies and video tape: Manny Maroño’s ‘charisma’
After Pizzi got off, he had to sue the state to get his suspension by Gov. Rick Scott lifted and then had to sue the town of Miami Lakes to get his job back. But, in August of last year, he still sued his beloved town for the $2.5 million bill from his legal dream team. He ha
d up to eight attorneys at once — like he was O.J. Simpson or something. And the list included such prominent legal names as Ben Keuhne, Ed Shohat and David Reiner.
Guess you get what you pay for, because his acquittal is nothing short of miraculous, considering he had been recorded taking cash from a lobbyist/informant in an office closet.
Ladra always suspected that the $2.5 price — which was lowered from an original $3.2 million — had been artificially inflated, jacked up so that Pizzi could have a piece of the pie.
Maybe Judge Marin smelled something too and said nana-nina. The judge cited precedents that established that “for public officials to be entitled to representation at public expense, the litigation must (1) arise out of or in connection with the performance of their official duties and (2) serve a public purpose.”
City Attorney Raul Gastesi was pleased that the judge agreed with outside counsel’s arguments.
“The action taken was not in the context of his official capacity as mayor of Miami Lakes,” Gastesi told Ladra Thursday. “It is our position he was not acting as the mayor of the town.
“First of all, what he was doing in the city of Medley certainly doesn’t have anything to do with the town of Miami Lakes,” Gastesi said, referring to the
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Dan, here’s an economics lesson for you: Wayne Slaton + bad legal advise from Raul Gastesi, multipled by a town council obsessed with preserving its new found powers= cost this Town hundreds of thousands of dollars. This is money that could have been spent in our schools and our neighborhoods. This obsession with Pizza brought out the worst in this community. Pizzi and the old guard, including Slaton and Mary Collins fought for this town everyday. Not a bunch self righteous power hungry politicians. How about recognizing that Miami Lakes WAS a model town. No more. It’s aging and the whole place needs a fresh coat of paint. Keep bashing Pizzi if the name calling makes you feel better. We’ve become just a crowded pass through between Hialeah and Miramar. I’ll continue to watch the gang that could shoot straight and see how you all do. I’ll continue to sit back and laugh at you all as your consumer $ pass through my hands. Good luck and grow up.
Yes, your ignorance is astounding, Enough Already. Your implication that Michael Pizzi was the cause of our rising property values is a joke. You’re a prime candidate for a remedial economics course. And crime? What did he do to address crime that other council members didn’t? Perhaps if you were actually more involved, you’d be more informed and less ignorant. Gotta love the dream team comment. Very telling of who you are ;). Michael Pizzi is self serving scum who would rather place the entire burden for this litigation on us than on Medley where it belongs. Nice way to pay back the people you “serve.”
It never ceases to amaze me how ignorant some folks can be. Regardless of your bias against Michael Pizzi, he has served this Town Of Miami Lakes. Served, as in “Service.” Where the heck have you all been? Sitting back and doing nothing while your property values have grown and crime remained low. The man worked and cared. Pizzi was targeted, acquitted and reinstated. Teach that to your children. The battles that followed cost Miami Lakes hundreds or thousands of $ because others wanted power and control. What they lost in the courts they won at the polls; that’s the American Way. Every politician eventually falls to voter fatigue- such was Pizzi fate. People want to move forward. Let’s start now– as I’ve said before, the town will need to write some checks, either to the Dream Team or its own lawyers (Raul is really cleaning up, huh? Lol). If not, the litigation will continue and every month another executive session to debate the Pizzi Matter. Come on, settle and move on. Imagine the day you won’t have Pizzi to kick around anymore…. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. After all, isn’t it…. ENOUGH ALREADY 😀
Still the POS we all knew him to be. Glad Miami Lakes finally got the message. Go fuck yourself, Mike.
Ifnhe wasn’t mayor there would be no bribe? Guess if he wasn’t mayor there would have been no tree in front of his car either.
It has been a tough year for Vaudeville Acts! Poor Pizzi Shemp can’t get anything done right. Wonder how his two sidekicks Mailman Jorge and Homophobic Armesto are feeling these days. All we have left are reruns lol.