What is it that Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo and City Attorney Victoria Mendez don’t want us to know?
The two lost a motion Wednesday to keep their depositions confidential in a federal $28 million lawsuit against the city by Bill Fuller and brothers Ben and Zach Bush, owners of Madroom Hospitality, which rents to Ball & Chain and other Little Havana businesses, and who say Carollo weaponized the code enforcement department to shut them down after one of them supported his opponent in 2017. This case, filed in 2021, is different from the $2.5 million federal first amendment case filed separately by Fuller against the commissioner, which starts next week.
Carollo and his attorneys don’t want Fuller’s attorney, Jeff Gutchess, to use any of the testimony in the depos for his case. They wanted the depos only to be used in this case and only seen by the attorneys and those involved in this case. U.S. Magistrate Judge Lisette Reid, said no señores, and removed the confidential designations agreed to when the depositions were taken.
Read related: Joe Carollo wants $2.5 mil federal jury trial in Miami; ‘too bad’ says U.S. judge
Reid also denied a Carollo motion for protective order against the removal of confidential status.
Protective order? ¿Que se ha creido El Pollo Carollo?
“Plaintiffs objected and asked the City and Commissioner Carollo, as part of their good faith conferral, to identify the confidential portions of the transcripts and the legal basis thereof. The City and Commissioner Carollo, however, maintained that the entire deposition transcripts remain confidential.
“This one-size-fits-all approach to every word on hundreds of pages of documents will not do,” she said, because she can see right through them.
Commissioner Carollo filed a separate motion requesting the Court enter a protective order prohibiting plaintiffs from using the deposition for purposes other than this case.
“He alleges Plaintiffs will share the deposition transcripts with the media and State Attorney if the confidentiality designations are removed,” the denial of the motion states. He’s afraid of the State Attorney getting their hands on his depo?
“Plaintiffs’ goal — he says — is to win the case in the ‘court of public opinion” by smearing his reputation and suggesting he is the subject of a criminal investigation. The Commissioner alleges Plaintiffs tried to intimidate him and City Attorney Mendez during their depositions by asking personal questions, repeatedly mentioning an ongoing criminal investigation, and reminding the Commissioner about his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.”
The judge reviewed the transcripts and said there were no repeated mentions.
“Lastly, Commissioner Carollo is a public official, and the case involves scrutiny of the official conduct of a public official. He points to no case that has held that this alone would constitute good cause to impose a protective order,” Reid wrote in her order. “Commissioner Carollo has shown no substantial government interest that would be affected, any personal threat to him, or any invasion of his privacy rights that would result if his motion is denied.”
Read related: Lawsuit: Miami city attorney, husband ‘conspired,’ used city to flip property
It’s going to take a few days for the 17 or so attorneys and paralegals sucking the city taxpayers dry with their legal fees to go over the transcripts and produce them without the big black redaction lines. But Ladra can’t wait to read them. Las malas lenguas say that Tricky Vicky Mendez may have perjured herself when she said she didn’t know anything about her husband’s business or that her family home was not a Miami-Dade Guardianship program property — things we know are not true today.
What else do they not want us to know?
Denial of Protective Order and Depositions city of Miami April 2023 by Political Cortadito on Scribd
Joe Carollo, Vicky Mendez lose motion to keep their depositions confidential added by Ladra on
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