Former, arrested, suspended and acquitted Miami Lakes Mayor Michael “Muscles” Pizzi is one step 
closer to sitting back in his office at Town Hall after a judge ruled Tuesday that his acquittal on bribery charges — and the subsequent, if forced, revocation of the governor’s suspension — means that he should get his old elected seat back.
Oh, and all the back wages he’s missed since he was suspended by Gov. Rick Scott following his August 2013 arrest on federal bribery charges that prosecutors couldn’t make stick.
Pizzi was arrested on the same day and in the same sting operation that netted former Sweetwater Mayor Manny “Maraña” Maroño, who is doing 3.5 years for the same basic crime. The case against Maroño, who boasted of his exploits on wiretap, was always better than the one against Pizzi, who took $3,000 from a lobbyist/bagman in a closet but was careful enough in his lawyeresque wording that he could always cast a tiny shadow of a doubt.
Read related story: Michael Pizzi swings again to get his Miami Lakes seat back
So, he was acquitted a year later last August. And, when Scott didn’t immediately revoke the suspension, Pizzi’s dream team of seven attorneys led by legal eagle Benedict Kuehne sued the governor and forced him, via the Supreme Court, to sign a revocation in December. Then, they had to sue again, because the city didn’t immediately evict Mayor Wayne Slaton, who won the seat in a special October election two months after Pizzi’s arrest.
Tuesday, Circuit Judge Cardonne Ely — “validating Mayor Pizzi’s principled stance in favor of democracy and the rule of law,” Kuehne said in a statement — declared that Pizzi is the rightful mayor of Miami Lakes and is entitled to resume the office of Mayor through November 2016, which is the term he was elected to in 2012.
“Mayor Pizzi has now prevailed in every challenge to his mayoral leadership,” Kuehne said. “He is excited to begin again to restore the Town of Miami Lakes to prominence and prosperity, as he continues his work serving the people of Miami Lakes. He calls on temporary Mayor Slaton to cease and desist from his senseless litigation that only serves to cost the town and its citizens untold dollars in legal fees.”
Read related story: Miami Lakes will defend mayor against Michael Pizzi
The judge did give the city 30 days to appeal — or move Mayor Slaton out. So Ladra is not necessarily 
expecting Pizzi to be answering the phone at Town Hall today. Even though he certainly would if he could.
“This is a time for unity and joy,” Pizzi said in the statement. “At this special time of year when many members of our community are preparing to join with their friends and family to celebrate the joy of freedom and justice at Passover and Easter, we should embrace this decision that allows all of us to look forward.”
Tuesday afternoon, Pizzi told journalists and TV crews that he was the mayor of Miami Lakes, gosh darn it, and characteristically — and almost cartoonishly — pumped his fists into the air.
Maybe his new nickname ought to be Popeye.
“This is a victory for democracy, a victory for the constitution, a victory for the people of Miami Lakes,” he told WSVN Channel 7, adding, incredibly, that he was the “victim of a political coup.”
Ladra guesses Pizzi is now going to argue that political enemies forced him to consider a bogus grant deal that was an obvious scam to anybody with any sense, never mind an attorney who is also the mayor of a municipality and also forced him to do it without going through the council process.
Still, for all of the sins that Pizzi seems to be getting away with, it also seems inevitable that he’ll be back. And that is the right thing to do. Because — like him or not, whether you think he’s guilty or not — it seems that the rule of law and democracy does, indeed, dictate that he be returned to office.
Read related story: Michael Pizzi and his legal dream team — at what cost to who?
Otherwise, think of how easy it would be to get rid of any elected. If you can get someone charged with wrongdoing, whether she or he did it or not, they would get suspended. And nobody would have to win at the ballot box anymore.
Slaton — Pizzi’s longtime nemesis who lost the 2012 election to Muscles — should just give up already, before this battle costs the city one more dime than the $180,00 or so of the taxpayers’ money spent so far on this big boy’s political pissing match.
But he won’t. He issued a statement Tuesday saying that, as the judge had said they could do, the city planned to appeal and be successful in that process.
Or maybe he can’t. Because if he does that will automatically give Pizzi and his attorneys the upper hand in recovering legal fees for the past 20 months — which Ladra bets are upwards of $2 million.
Although, really, they ought to be suing the FBI and Gov. Scott.
Meanwhile, who do the people of Miami Lakes get to sue?
Miami Lakes: Michael Pizzi thisclose to being mayor again added by Ladra on
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Hey Smart Cookie,
If voters choose not to exercise their right to vote on a consistent basis, then that’s on them. It doesn’t make Michael’s 20012 race any more valid than Wayne’s 2013 race. Michael is the one launching a coup here by overturning an election in the courts. By your logic, Michael was not elected Mayor until 2012 because every election prior was a stand alone election with under 45% turnout. Maybe you’re not so smart???
Is this an April fools joke ?
pray for ML……the next few months will not be nice
My only comment is the fact that Pizzi won his election with 60% of the vote and when Slaton ran and won, hardly any of the voters went to vote. We either believe in the system or we don’t. One of Governor Scott’s mistake by not reinstating Pizzi is costing the residents of Miami Lakes a lot of wasted money. Shame on him.
HE WILL RESTORE THE TOWN TO PROMINENCE AND PROSPERITY? REALLY, HAS THE TOWN BEEN IN BAD SHAPE. I DON’T THINK SO, FOR THE FIRST TIME THEY ARE USING THE PROPER $ FOR THE PROPER NEED. THERE IS NOW BUSES THAT GO AROUND THE TOWN (JUST LIKE CG AND MIAMI ) THERE IS NO ELECTED OFFICIAL (MAYOR ) GOING AROUND AND NOT PAYING HIS BILLS BECAUSE “DON’T YOU KNOW HE IS THE MAYOR”. THE CITY IS AT PEACE AND THRIVING, DON’T BURDEN THIS BEAUTIFUL PLACE WITH GARBAGE AND COW MANURE. PLEASE GO AWAY AND FIND ANOTHER POOL HALL TO MANAGE YOUR DIRTY DEEDS. A FEW PEOPLE WALKING BEHIND ON TV DOES NOT MAKE YOU DESIRABLE NOR GOOD JOE, JUST A CLOWN.
This travesty can only happen in South Florida. Thank George the postman, Pizzi’s dear friend and former council member and also his other pool hall lackey for lying through their teeth to a federal jury about the monies and cigars Pizzi got from FBI agents. Thank Ben Kuhne, influential attorney who represents every piece of political scum south of NW 215 Street. Also thank the numb skull agents and management at the FBI for failing to mark the monies they gave Pizzi, following him to the bathroom, and installing a camera in the bathroom that would have shown this piece of work putting the monies in his pocket and following him for the next few days to see how he spent those monies. Pizzi is a sleazeball and the worst thing that can happen to Miami Lakes but you have to dislike the FBI even more for being the laughingstock of the law enforcement community in the area and losing the second (first was Julio Robaina) major corruption case in this area in a few years. So carry on Mike, you have a year and a few months until the next election. Have a pint on us at the old pool hall but please do not preach about democracy or “political coups” ! Just remember you were found not guilty by the federal court but the court of public opinion is well aware your are a corrupt bribing rat.