Jury says Miami's Joe Carollo abused power to violate 1st Amendment rights

Commissioner may appeal $63.5 million award to Little Havana partners

Miami City Commissioner Joe Carollo has been found by a jury of his peers in a federal civil trial of violating the first amendment rights of two businessmen who apparently supported Crazy Joe’s opponent in the 2017 election.

The six-member jury ordered Thursday that Carollo pay $63.5 million in damages: That’s $8.6 million in damages and $25.7 million in punitive damages to Ball & Chain owner Bill Fuller and $7.3 million and $21.9 million in punitive damages to his business partner, Martin Pinilla. They claimed Carollo intentionally targeted their tenants and businesses in retaliation for an event held at Ball and Chain for one of Carollo’s opponents I the 2017 election.

“It’s not about the money, it’s the principle,” said Jeff Gutchess, one of the attorneys representing the two men, who were visibly emotional outside the courthouse Thursday. Pinilla said it was a “message to all elected politicians that they can’t abuse their power.”

Gutchess told Ladra that, while it won’t be easy, he was going to go after Carollo’s assets (more on that later). That is, after all, how to prevent future abuses like this, he said. But the decision was more of an emotional victory, he told Ladra.

Fuller called it a “reputational win.”

“We have been under so much stress for so long. A big weight has been lifted,” he said. “Now everybody knows this guy is a joke.”

Fuller said he got more than 300 text messages after the verdict. “People are coming out of the woodwork,” to offer congratulations and support, he said. Well, sure they are now.

The civil complaint was brought against Carollo in 2018 by Fuller and Pinilla who say the commissioner intentionally targeted their properties, weaponizing the city’s police and code enforcement departments, because his 2017 opponent, Alfie Leon, had a fundraising event at Ball & Chain, a bar that Fuller owns. Ball & Chain was among the targets, shut down for a while because of code enforcement violations that should have easily been mitigated. But so were other tenants of the men’s properties in Little Havana. Carollo even created an event to compete with the popular Viernes Culturales Fuller began.

“He almost broke us,” Fuller told Ladra.

Lucky for all of us that Fuller and Pinilla had the wherewithal and wallet — Fuller said it has cost them millions of legal fees they will now try to recover — to sustain the prolonged legal tricks Carollo pulled. Anybody else might have folded long ago. Like after Crazy Joe’s fifth stomach ache delay.

“He misjudged us. Because what he was trying to do was bankrupt us,” Fuller said. “The money is not important. It’s that we have been vindicated.”

Carollo earlier insisted that every single witness who testified against him — including former Police Chiefs Art Acevedo and Jorge Colina, his former staffers Steve Miro and Richard Blum and the one-time aide who said Crazy Joe forced her to lie about being sexually harassed by them — each lied on the stand. But the ones who lied on the stand was Carollo and his own witnesses (more on that later).

The commissioner did not answer the phone or return text messages — even though he left the courthouse telling TV reporters that he would be happy to talk when the gag order was lifted. And it was lifted after the decision. Carollo hid from TV cameras behind closed doors but he did tell the Miami Herald, which covered the trial extensively, that he was definitely going to appeal.

His attorneys said as much in a statement.

“Commissioner Carollo will seek to exercise all legal rights available to him including appellate review,” said attorneys Mason Portnoy and Ben Kuehne in a statement thanking the jury.

“Unlike the Plaintiffs who seem to have now resorted to disparaging comments about the Commissioner and City of Miami Employees, the Commissioner will continue to serve all citizens of District 3 and the City of Miami fairly and equally in protecting health, safety, and quality of life,” Kuehne said.

Surely, he is talking about the comment made by a giddy Fuller outside the courthouse: “It feels great to finally smush that cucaracha.” But is he really smushed smushed? Or is he just limping without his patita principal? Kuehne hinted at an appeal and throughout the trial the possibility was always permeating.

“They’ve been setting up for an appeal the whole time, raising every objection they could,” Gutchess said. “That’s been their whole strategy. But there is no grounds.”

Why not try? Kuehne and Portnoy and Marc Sarnoff and all the other attorneys — who collectively billed the city about $2 million before the trial even started — don’t want to end the gravy train before they have to.

Actually, is there any way to stop that public trough and recover those taxpayer funds? Ladra heard there’s a group of citizens who will ask for Carollo’s resignation based on this jury decision. What they should ask for is their money back and for the city to stop paying his legal fees. Let’s see if Kuehne et al represent Pollo Carollo for free.

At least one commissioner, Sabina Covo, has asked for a briefing on how this case affects taxpayers.

Meanwhile, shouldn’t Carollo be charged with criminal violations? Shouldn’t he be facing stronger consequences for abusing public office for political gain. He violated these people’s civil rights. He violated his staff’s civil rights. He committed perjury. He abused his power as an elected official.

Pick a crime, Kathy. Any crime.

Carollo beat Leon by a scant 252 votes in 2017 and then won a lawsuit challenging his residency in the district. He was then able to fight off a legitimate recall effort through his manipulation or “weaponization” of the city’s legal office, despite the signature of more than 1,900 voters. It was a legal battle that also cost the city hundreds of thousands of dollars. Carollo was then re-elected in 2021 with 64% of the vote against three barely-there challengers.

Tuesday’s decision shows that maybe Carollo’s luck has finally run out.

But someone’s luck got better Thursday. North Miami Mayor Anthony DiFilippi, whose arrest Wednesday for “voting irregularities” didn’t even make one full news cycle. And nobody will care tomorrow, when everybody is going to be talking about Carollo’s lost case.

Joe Carollo

Jury says Miami’s Joe Carollo abused power to violate 1st Amendment rights added by Ladra on June 1, 2023
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