Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo served with court summons in meeting

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Plaintiffs seek to remove Loco Pollo Carollo from office

You can run, but you can’t hide from the courts.

The lawsuit to remove Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo from office was filed in January, but the elected has been dodging the serving of papers every which way since. Coward. So he was served with the summons today at a city commission meeting.

Process server Jose Mejia tried served Carollo during public comments, right before Commission Chairwoman Christine King shut him down. He left the document on the podium.

The lawsuit was filed Jan. 22 by William Fuller and Martin Pinilla, the two businessmen who won a $63.5 million judgement against Carollo in federal court after proving he violated their freedom of speech by retaliating against them for supporting a political opponent in 2017. Joining them is Denise Galvez, a Little Havana activist, PR specialist and former District 4 commission candidate who does the PR for who supports many of Fuller’s endeavors, especially Viernes Culturales.

Read related: Feds move to take Joe Carollo’s Coconut Grove house for $63.5 mil judgement

It seeks the removal of Carollo, citing the unanimous jury judgement and the city charter’s Citizens Bill of Rights and requesting a “speedy hearing” before the commissioner can do more damage.

“The City of Miami Charter provides that any public official ‘who is found by the court to have willfully violated’ certain rights—including ‘interfer[ing] with the right[ ] of freedom of speech’—’shall forthwith forfeit his or her office or employment,” reads the emergency motion filed by attorney Jeffrey Gutchess, who represented the businessmen in the federal civil suit, which was won last summer.

“‘Forthwith’ means ‘immediately’ and ‘without any delay,'” he wrote, citing a couple of dictionaries and saying that the matter was urgent.

“Removal of an elected official found by a court to have willfully violated the right to freedom of speech is even more urgent than an action contesting the election of a public official or enforcing a public records request,” Guthchess wrote in the motion. “For instance, a contested election usually involves the counting of votes or a candidate’s residency, not the willful violation of the fundamental rights that all U.S. citizens have under the U.S. Constitution, as this case does.”

The hearing can be scheduled in as little as 30 days from the motion, it says, because there is no discovery, testimony or evidence other than the unanimous jury verdict and entry of the federal court’s final judgement. “That judgment cannot be questioned but rather must be enforced by this Court.”

Read related: New petition drive aims to oust Miami’s Joe Carollo from Bayfront Park Trust

The motion “presents pure legal issues over which there can be little dispute,” Gutchess wrote, adding “the prejudice inflicted on Plaintiffs and the public outweigh any possible justification for any additional undue delay.”

In a pre-emptive strike, Gutchess writes that the commissioner may argue that plaintiffs have no standing. But Galvez is a resident who has the standing under the Citizens Bill of Rights. And Carollo is just trying to delay, like he always does, Gutchess said. Meanwhile, he continues his harassment.

“A hearing on removal forthwith is even more critical in this case as Defendant Carollo has only accelerated and expanded his First Amendment retaliation campaign against Plaintiffs,” Gutchess wrote. “Every day that Carollo impermissibly remains in office as a City of Miami Commissioner represents another day that he is capable of wielding unauthorized power to chill the free speech and political association rights of every Miami resident.

“In other words, allowing such a patent abuse of municipal authority to persist not only presents a direct threat to Plaintiffs in this case, but also discourages other members of the public from similarly exercising their constitutional rights in opposition to Carollo, causing widespread and irreparable harm to the community in clear contravention of the foundational principles enshrined in the City of Miami Charter and United States Constitution.”

Read related: How can Miami’s Joe Carollo pay $63.5 million damages in federal jury award?

Fuller, the owner of Ball & Chain, and Pinilla, his business partner, have another lawsuit filed in November against the city and personally against City Manager Art Noriega, City Attorney Victoria Mendez and a bunch of other employees who basically allowed the commissioner to use their offices to violate their First Amendment rights. They’re seeking more than $60 million for this one. A federal judge refused to throw out the case last week, as the city wanted, but instructed Fuller and Pinilla to amend their original complaint with more detail, according to the court documents.

Meanwhile, Carollo, who is on the verge of losing his house and all its contents, should lose his seat, too. It’s in the Citizens Bill of Rights.

 

  Ball & Chain, Joe Carollo