Big, expensive legal loss for Joe Carollo. Jury awards Miami businessmen $63.5 million
Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo was so livid with two Little Havana business owners for supporting a political opponent that he spent years destroying their reputations and pushed police and code enforcement to target their properties, a jury decided Thursday.
More significantly, jurors also decided Carollo should pay a hefty price for abusing his authority, awarding the two men a staggering $63.5 million in compensation.
Both businessmen William “Bill” Fuller and Martin Pinilla — who had sued Carollo in federal civil court, arguing he violated their First Amendment rights — broke into smiles and hugged their wives and friends as the verdict was read. Their attorneys did the same, some teary-eyed.
“It’s about time the corruption was called out,” Fuller said, his voice breaking.
Outside the federal courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, Fuller blasted Carollo as a “bully” and a “coward” and said “it feels great to finally smash that cucaracha,” Miami Herald news partner CBS News Miami reported.
The Little Havana property owner told the Miami Herald that though they intend to go after Carollo’s assets to offset business losses, it wasn’t the reason the two men filed the lawsuit.
“The greatest suffering we’ve had at the hands of Joe has been to our reputations,” Fuller said. “I can’t stress the amount of stress we’ve gone through.”
Read More: Who will pay Carollo’s $63.5 million judgment? Probably not Joe, who hasn’t got the dough
Carollo sat stone-faced next to attorney Marc Sarnoff before leaving court without comment. But reached by phone later, he insisted he had exercised his powers as a commissioner properly and that he expected to win in appellate court. “Today is the first day of this trial. They will have a different look at this, there, where I think it will be a more level playing field.”
He also questioned such a massive award from the jury, saying it exceeded many wrongful death cases and he “wasn’t accused of killing anybody.”
The six-member jury, which trudged through several delays and an almost three-week change of venue to Miami, reached a decision after only four hours of deliberations over two days. They awarded Fuller $8.6 million in compensation for loss of reputation and business and other costs and another $25.7 million in punitive damages. Pinilla was awarded another $7.3 million in compensation and $21.9 million in punitive punishment.
What wasn’t immediately clear: Whether and how they can collect.
Carollo confirmed a planned appeal, which will likely delay any payments. And financial records show he doesn’t have nearly enough money to cover the awards. He earns $58,000 a year as a commissioner and owns a home in Coconut Grove that property records show is worth about $1.6 million. His most recent financial disclosure at the end of 2021 claimed he had $100,000 in his checking account and owed $279,000 to Capital Bank.
The city of Miami itself wasn’t a defendant in the case and doesn’t appear to be on the hook for damages. But the city did previously agree to pay the commissioner’s legal fees, which are already substantial. City records obtained by the Miami Herald show he’d been billed almost $2 million by at least three law firms — before the trial even began. Those bills, technically footed by taxpayers, are sure to have skyrocketed during the two-month trial. Whether the city might move to defray Carollo’s suddenly massive liability tab remains unclear.
Attorney Jeff Gutchess, who represented Fuller and Pinilla, said he intends on seeking a discovery of Carollo’s assets and will move to garnish his wages and put a lien on his property as soon as Friday. He said all of that will be done under the supervision of federal District Court Judge Rodney Smith, who oversaw the seven-week trial. He said his clients were thrilled with the win in a long, grueling legal battle.
“To them, it’s obviously complete vindication. They were crying after the verdict,” Gutchess said.
At Miami City Hall, the weight of Thursday’s decision was just sinking in by mid-afternoon. Though the city wasn’t named in the lawsuit, it wasn’t immediately clear if the city would be on the hook for any costs. In a prepared statement, Commissioner Sabina Covo said the jury’s decision raised several potential questions.
“While this is a civil matter, I look forward to receiving a detailed briefing by the city attorney and city manager on impacts and implications to our taxpayers,” she said.
The jury’s decision only added to Carollo’s checkered record. A political bomb thrower since first elected as Miami’s youngest commissioner in 1983, he’s been accused of everything from racism, to violence to wild conspiracy theories. But he also continues to get re-elected.
Carollo’s issues with Fuller and Pinilla predate his 2017 election victory in Miami’s District 3, but not by much. The businessmen — who own and operate several of Calle Ocho’s most popular destinations, from the Ball & Chain nightclub to the Tower Hotel — got into hot water with Carollo in November of that year when they held a rally on one of their properties for attorney Alfonso “Alfie” Leon, who Carollo would go on to defeat in a runoff.
In a lawsuit the men filed in federal civil court less than a year later, they claimed Carollo had violated their First Amendment rights by targeting them during the rally that was evenually shut down by police, after it and again after they filed a complaint against the commissioner with the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust.
The crux of the complaint: Carollo targeted their businesses, forcing one to shut down and another to move and that he “weaponized” police and code enforcement to harass their businesses.
The battle between the two men and Carollo was so heated that a year after the lawsuit was filed, Fuller invited media to the front steps of City Hall in 2019 with claims that the commissioner had done work on his Coconut Grove home without proper permitting. He was later cited by code enforcement. The men say the commissioner’s harassment continued nto the pandemic years and beyond.
During the trial that began April 10, Gutchess and co-counsel Courtney Caprio, repeatedly offered testimony and played video that showed police and code enforcement moving through crowds at the business men’s properties late at night, demanding permits that were easily accessed through work computers, even in vehicles. Other video showed Carollo himself late at night arguing with workers about parking conditions.
Carollo argued that he was only trying to improve the quality of life for neighboring residents and that Fuller and Pinilla serially abused the permit process by building and remodeling without proper permitting.
Carollo’s defense attorney Mason Pertnoy told jurors Fuller and Pinilla’s problems were brought on themselves for creating a business plan that included not applying for proper permits. The attorney showed more than a dozen instances in which their businesses were cited for not acquiring permitting prior to construction or demolition. They also argued that Carollo never directed anyone to take aim at the men.
“Business as usual for the plaintiffs is building without permits,” Pertnoy told jurors. “That has been the evidence throughout. It’s just that simple. It’s not about targeting.”
A handful of Miami’s most powerful administrators defended the commissioner. In one heated exchange with Gutchess, Miami City Manager Art Noriega said Carollo never pressured any city employees to do his bidding. Noriega also said that when Carollo spoke with police about potential problems, he only did so after asking the city manager for permission.
STRANGE EVENTS DURING TRIAL
Almost from the get-go, what would turn out to be an almost two-month trial was beset by problems and bizarre events — several outside of the courthouse. Historic rainfall force a change in venue to Miami federal court for almost three weeks. And after testimony in Miami one day, former Police Chief and Carollo foe Art Acevedo, was followed from the courthouse to a restaurant in Coral Gables by a couple of private detectives. Police questioned the investigators, but no explanation was ever given.
Carollo also angered Judge Smith when he was a no-show on a day he was listed as a witness. Also yet to be determined: What will come from a photo taken in the courtroom by one of Carollo’s attorneys. Smith was so upset he threatened them with a two-year suspension from practicing in the Southern District.
During Wednesday’s closing arguments, Caprio asked jurors to reward her clients with between $50 million and $110 million for intense emotional suffering during a half-decade campaign in which they Carollo said the men were money launderers involved in prostitution while speaking on Spanish radio.
“It was pure intimidation. It was meant to punish,” Caprio told jurors.
For his part, Carollo said the judgment won’t affect his governance of the Little Havana district he was elected to represent.
“I’m going to be moving forward the same way I have since Day One in serving all my residents,” the commissioner said after the verdict. “I will fight for their rights, safety and well-being.”
