The Florida Third District Court of Appeal said Wednesday that former Miami Lakes Mayor Michael “Muscles” Pizzi could continue his lawsuit against the town for payment of his $3.25 million in legal fees from his 2013 public corruption trial.
Pizzi had a dream team of attorneys to fight the federal bribery charges after 
an FBI sting caught him in a bogus grant scheme for kickbacks. Despite taped conversations where he suggests the agents provide contributions to his political campaign, Pizzi — who used language that could be interpreted more than one way — was acquitted of the charges in 2014. He then turned around and billed the town.
Town Attorney Raul Gastesi has argued that the town and its taxpayers should not be responsible for the actions that Pizzi took, which were not taken for the benefit of the city — but rather the benefit of his campaign account — and were also done, in part, under his role as town attorney for Medley.
Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Mavel Ruiz agreed and dismissed the lawsuit in 2018 — for the second time. It was dismissed in 2016. Wednesday’s unanimous decision reverses that.
Read related: Judge dismisses Michael Pizzi lawsuit vs town for legal fees
“The unanimous Third District declared that the Town was wrong to reject Mayor Pizzi’s claim for payment of his legal fees under the Town’s own Legal Reimbursement Policy and through the Common Law doctrine of reimbursement for an acqu
itted official,” reads a statement sent by lead attorney Benedict P. Kuehne.
The other attorneys on the legal team included Ralf Rodriguez, David Reiner, Kent Harrison Robbins, Michael Davis, and Tallahassee counsel Mark Herron.
His appellate team consists of Kuehne, Davis and Susan Dmitrovsky of Kuehne Davis Law, P.A., Edward R. Shohat of Jones Walker LLP, David P. Reiner II and Samuel B. Reiner II of Reiner & Reiner, P.A., and Gonzalo Dorta of Dorta Law.
“We are thrilled to once again show the Town that its unprincipled refusal to do what is right is contrary to law,” Kuehne crowed in the statement, where Pizzi also urged the town council to “work with my lawyers to pay what is owed and stop taking hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Town’s budget in its ill-advised failure to follow legal precedent.”
Read related: Michael Pizzi and his legal dream team — at what cost to who?
Pizzi said he was “hopeful that my political adversaries on the Town Council will finally stop wasting taxpayer dollars by opposing my righteous claim.”
Pot meet Kettle.
Gastesi said he was disappointed with the ruling, but that it did not, in fact, 
mean the city’s refusal to pay the legal fees is wrong, as Kuehne suggests.
“The decision merely reversed the decisions of the trial court judges holding that Mr. Pizzi did not state a legally cognizable cause of action in the Complaint as drafted,” Gastesi explained.
In other words: It’s a technicality.
“The decision specifically holds that Mr. Pizzi must still prove that his inexplicable actions and extremely poor judgment were for a public purpose and serving the citizens of the Town of Miami Lakes,” Gastesi told Ladra.
Yeah, good luck with that, Mike.
His lawyers’ statement said they “look forward to proving that Mayor Pizzi is entitled to payment of his legal fees.”
Ladra looks forward to that also. In fact, it’s very good news that Pizzi won 
this appeal and has his day in court. Because unlike the federal criminal trial, where Pizzi could plead the fifth, he will have to testify in this trial. He will have to answer questions, under oath, about his intentions when he met with the undercover agents posing as grant brokers.
“The fact is this trial will be under a much more lenient standard than that of a criminal case. Mr. Pizzi will have to testify during this trial and will not have a 5th amendment right,” Gastesi explained.
Read related: Michael Pizzi sues Miami Lakes for $3.2 million in legal fees
“Mr. Pizzi will also have to explain the fact that that one of his defenses was entrapment meaning he actually engaged in the acts but should be found not guilty for other reasons,” he added. “The Appellate Court reiterated that this was merely a technical reversal and not a decision on the merits nor in any way condoning Mr. Pizzi’s conduct.
“Mr. Pizzi still has to prove entitlement to the monies and the Town will have every opportunity to present its defenses.”
And Ladra, for one, can’t wait.
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