Miami owes $120K in legal fees from Crazy Joe Carollo’s lawsuit

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The legal bills are coming in from Commissioner Joe Carollo‘s ill-fated, frivolous lawsuit to try to stop the strong mayor referendum that was doomed to fail anyway.

And so far, the city is liable for almost $120,000 in legal fees.

That means you, dear taxpayer.

The biggest bill is from McDonald Hopkins, whose attorney Raquel Rodriguez charged $575 an hour to help defend the city and City Clerk Todd Hannon. That bill came in at $73,558.15, including $252 for copies, $203 for transcripts and $15 for parking.

Read related: What are Joe Carollo’s frivolous strong mayor lawsuits costing us?

Colson Eidson Hicks billed another $44,683 for the time of three attorneys — Roberto Martinez, Lazaro Fields and Francisco Maderal — who spent a combined 172 hours on the case, each at $250 an hour, helping to defend Mayor Francis Suarez.

Both of these invoices were dated Oct. 26, which could mean that there were more fees incurred afterwards. Especially since Carollo originally filed an appeal after his lawsuit was shot down.

The city also provided Ladra with a report that indicates Deputy City Attorney Christopher Green — who makes $186,655 a year — spent more than 17 hours on this nonsense, including 20 minutes, for example, reviewing emails from City Attorney Victoria Mendez and deputy city attorneys John Greco and Barnaby Min (all of whom probably make more than Green). There is also reference in Green’s report to assistant city attorneys Kerri McNulty and George Wysong maybe having worked on defending the city from Carollo’s silly attack. But Ladra did not get any report on the amount of time they spent on it.

This also doesn’t include the amount of time spent by Deputy Miami-Dade Attorney Oren Rosenthal, who represented Supervisor of Elections Christina White during the quick and ridiculous proceedings.

Read related: Judge calls Joe Carollo sore loser, rips apart strong mayor lawsuit

And we still don’t know how much Carollo’s attorney, Jesus Suarez, billed for this botched up job — or, more importantly, who paid him. Carollo has not returned mutliple calls to his cellphone and his office, as well as several texts. Mendez, the city attorney, has indicated that no payments have been made — yet. But Suarez will eventually be paid and that bill should be a public record.

The strong mayor measure failed anyway but all Crazy Joe did with his frivolous lawsuit was spend at least $120,000, probably more, of the taxpayers’ money.