Attorney says it’s gerrymandering to protect his house from seizure
The owner of Ball and Chain and several Little Havana properties — who with his real estate partner sued Miami City Commissioner Joe Carollo for violating their free speech — has filed another lawsuit asking a judge to stop the commissioner from voting Friday or participating in the vote on the city’s new redistricting map.
UPDATE: U.S. District Court Judge Rodney Smith denied the motion, saying “the relief sought by Plaintiffs is different in nature than that sought in the Second Amended Complaint. Plaintiffs seek to enjoin Defendant from exercising his legislative responsibilities, not from taking retaliatory actions against Plaintiffs. Moreover, as Defendant points out in his response, any challenge to the City Commission’s redistricting decisions should be challenged through a voter redistricting lawsuit. Consequently, Plaintiffs have failed to show that they will suffer irreparable harm if the Court does not issue a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction.”
An attorney for Bill Fuller and Martin Pinilla filed an emergency motion Tuesday for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction. They say that Carollo is gerrymandering his district so he can move back into his house and protect it from their other lawsuit.
“Commissioner Carollo is once again misusing his public position as City of Miami District 3 Commissioner in his ongoing retaliation campaign against Plaintiffs – this time, by manipulating the redistricting of the City of Miami to protect his home from being subject to a judgment in this case,” wrote attorney Jeffrey W. Gutchess, representing the two businessmen.
Read related: Miami’s redrawn maps could save Joe Carollo’s house from lawsuit grasp
The lawsuit includes two different maps and says that the first map extending into the Grove that was presented by the consultants — which makes more sense because it’s more contiguous — was rejected by Carollo because it didn’t include his house on Morris Lane.
“If Commissioner Carollo succeeds in creatively redrawing the boundaries of the district he represents to include the only home he owns, he can continue retaliating against Plaintiffs with impunity,” the lawsuit states. “His only asset will be shielded from the execution of a judgment through Florida’s Homestead Exemption law.”
With the four other commissioners, the city could still give final approval to the map — which divides Coconut Grove into three districts — on Friday. Or they could ask the consultants to “tweak” the map — as hundreds of residents have begged — as long as it achieves the goals of having districts with close to equal populations with boundaries that protect existing neighborhoods, voting blocs and incumbents.
Ladra was the first to expose that the new redistricting map was very awkwardly drawn to include Carollo’s house, which is in District 2 now, in the new District 3 — and the first to connect the dots as to why.
Carollo had to “move” into a small apartment in Brickell to run for the D3 seat in 2017. It was very suspicious, but he was able to defend a challenge in court from his opponent, Alfie Leon, who lost by 25`0 votes.
Read related: Joe Carollo lashes out at Ladra, says other commissioners live out of district
Carollo now lives in a cute little house in Little Havana that he rents or that someone gives him for free, and we don’t know who. He won’t say.
He is termed out, so it’s not so he can run again for commissioner. He’s rumored to be running for mayor in 2025 anyway so he could live anywhere in the city.
This is so he can protect the fancy house from any judgement. Florida law prohibits the courts from seizing a home that you live in. There’s no other reason for that awkward little dingleberry at the bottom of the district. It’s so he doesn’t literally lose his house.
The 6-bedroom, 5-bathroom, 5,000-square-foot house with a pool is on a cul-de-sac tucked between Tigertail Avenue and South Bayshore Drive. It is assessed at $1.4 million but has a market value of about $2.2 million, according to the Miami-Dade property appraiser.
Zillow lists its market value at more than $2.7 million.
The federal lawsuit filed in 2018 seeks at least $10 million in damages. Fuller and Pinilla believe they deserve it.
“Plaintiffs have had to endure years of retaliation from Carollo in the form of incessant and baseless building code enforcement actions simply for espousing core democratic values of fair and free elections,” Gutchess said.
“In Carollo’s eyes, Plaintiffs committed an unpardonable sin when they agreed to support one of Carollo’s political opponents. Since that day, Carollo has mercilessly wielded the power of his office to harm Plaintiffs’ business interests in Carollo’s district,” the attorney writes, confident of a victory.
Read related: Joe Carollo sued for violating free speech of Little Havana businesses
“Carollo’s retaliation campaign against Plaintiffs has been publicly confirmed by former City of Miami employees. Now Carollo is attempting to wield the power of his office to protect his home from the judgment Plaintiffs will inevitably obtain in this case.
“Doing so will irreparably harm Plaintiffs who will be further subjected to Commissioner Carollo’s unbridled retaliation.”
But the Fuller/Pinilla lawsuit isn’t the only one against Carollo and there may be more people objecting to his vote on redistricting any day.
Does that mean he’s not going to tell us on Friday, as promised last week, which other commissioner(s) lives outside his district?
Motion to stop Joe Carollo from voting on redistricting map by Political Cortadito on Scribd
Lawsuit asks court to stop Joe Carollo from voting on Miami redistricting added by Ladra on
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