Two Miami businessmen want city to oust Commissioner Joe Carollo
MIAMI - Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo's job is once again on the line.
Businessmen William Fuller and Martin Pinilla, the operators of a string of businesses along the Little Havana business corridor that includes the iconic Ball & Chain nightclub, have filed paperwork requesting that the City of Miami remove him from office.
Last June, a jury found him liable for violating the First Amendment rights of Fuller and Pinilla.
Carollo was accused of orchestrating a vendetta against them because they supported a rival candidate for political office.
Jurors in the civil trial ordered Carollo to pay $63.5 million in total to the men as a result of the verdict.
In filing their request, the businessmen cited Miami's "Citizens' Bill of Rights" which says the city "shall not interfere with the rights... of freedom of speech" and that any "public official, or employee who is found by the court to have willfully violated this section shall forthwith forfeit his or her office or employment."
"Accordingly, Plaintiffs hereby file this action against the City of Miami and Joe Carollo demanding a declaration, pursuant to the Miami City Charter, that Joe Carollo, as a "public official" who has been found "by the court to have willfully violated" the Citizens' Bill of Rights, must immediately "forfeit his or her office or employment," according to their complaint.
Attorney Jeff Gutchess told CBS News Miami's Peter D'Oench "We are hoping to get a hearing within a month and we are hoping to remove City Commissioner Carollo within a month. The citizens bill of rights says the city will not interfere with free speech."
Joe Carollo is fighting back. He said "If anyone is violating anything, it's them. They are targeting me. How can I violate their free speech if all they do is talk and talk? Peter, this is more of the same with these characters. This is the 5th lawsuit they have filed. They tried to do a recall against me and that flopped. Then in my re-election two years ago with 65 percent of the vote against 3 opponents they threw against me I won and again here they come again one more time trying to get me out of office."
"First of all they don't have any standing," said Carollo. "If they do why did they wait 7 1/2 months after it was over. This is America and we still have to follow the law. The rule of law says my case is not over and the motions still need to be put in place and they need to be taken care of and they haven't been. So I am being held hostage,"
City Attorney Victoria Méndez released the following statement on behalf of the City of Miami: "The federal case against Commissioner Carollo is still pending post-trial motions and an appeal."
"This is yet another effort by plaintiffs in that case to harass sitting Commissioner Carollo and force the City of Miami to continue spending taxpayer funds unnecessarily to defend itself against the plaintiffs' unlimited resources and serial lawsuits," Méndez continued. "The plaintiffs lack standing for this type of action and it is not ripe due to the pending appeal."
Mendez is the outgoing City Attorney and will be out of a job with the city in 5 months.
Last week, a federal court ordered the U.S. Marshals Office to seize Carollo's assets to help pay off the multi-million judgment against the commissioner.
The 68-year-old Carollo has been a City Commissioner since 2017 and his term expires next year.
Carollo first became a Miami Commissioner in 1979 at the age of 24 and was the youngest City Commissioner in city history. He served as Commissioner from 1979 to 1987 and served as Mayor from 1996-1997 and from 1998-2001.