Disdain, anger from Little Havana businessmen suing Carollo: ‘The plan was to break us’

Finally able to take the stand this week, it only took a few moments for two Little Havana businessmen accusing Joe Carollo of trying to submarine their business ventures as a political vendetta, to vent their disdain for the Miami commissioner.

“It’s not right what this man has done. He should be abolished from the earth,” Martin Pinilla said Monday — a statement that prompted an immediate call from Carollo’s attorneys for a mistrial, the second request since the trial began in early April.

“He has punished us for five years. You see us walk in here every day. We look good, but we’re barely making it,” said Pinilla’s partner William “Bill” Fuller. “The plan was to break us. That’s why we’re here, so you can hear the truth. Not this narrative of how bad we are.”

The business partners outbursts under questioning from their own attorney came as the federal trial against Carollo entered its fifth week in Fort Lauderdale’s federal courthouse. There, Pinilla and Fuller finally had the opportunity to explain to jurors how their political backing of a Carollo opponent in 2017 led the commissioner to try and destroy their livelihoods.

Pinilla and Fuller rehashed the same argument other witnesses have echoed since jurors were chosen April 10: That Carollo, upset with their endorsement of political opponent Alfonso “Alfie” Leon, “weaponized” city resources to try and close down their business entities in Little Havana’s thriving commercial corridor.

Sparks flew almost the moment Carollo’s attorneys got a chance to cross-examine the businessmen. Pinillia didn’t hold back after Carollo attorney Mason Pertnoy brought up a Spanish radio interview in which Carollo complained about a pair of Little Havana businessmen with alleged ties to unnamed but questionable Venezuelans.

“He’s accusing us of harboring communists in our property, without saying my name, without saying Bill’s name,” Pinilla said.

When U.S. Federal Judge Rodney Smith denied an objection from Pertnoy, Pinilla continued.

“You got what you asked for,” he said.

Then when Pertnoy showed Pinilla an email request he made for code enforcement to inspect work being done at Carollo’s Coconut Grove home — for which the commissioner was cited — Martin continued: “We’ve suffered from multiple, multiple, multiple raids,” he said.

The testy hearing has ping-ponged between Miami and Fort Lauderdale since the start. In its fifth week, it’s again back where it began in Fort Lauderdale, but was interrupted by an historic rainfall and building damage. Though jurors no longer have to be bused in from Broward County, they do now have to walk up steps to the second-floor courtroom. Even as air conditioning and power was restored, work still needed to be done on the elevators.

Pinilla and Fuller claim the commissioner violated their First Amendment rights almost as soon as they publicly endorsed Leon, who challenged Carollo for his commission seat in 2017. Though Carollo won the election in a runoff, it didn’t stop the commissioner’s revenge, the men are arguing.

Fuller and Pinilla, who run the popular and historic Ball & Chain nightclub and a host of other businesses along the Calle Ocho corridor, say that since Carollo was elected, their entities have been cited by code enforcement 84 times. One business moved. Another was forced to close.

Carollo’s attorneys — and Carollo himself for three days on the witness stand — have denied the allegations. They’ve argued any focus the commissioner might have had on properties run by Fuller and Pinilla were in the interest of preserving the quality of life for residents who live near the Calle Ocho business corridor. They also claim that the businessman, who have interest in dozens of Little Havana properties, have refurbished and torn down properties without proper permitting.

But time after time over the past four weeks, Fuller and Pinilla have hammered home odd situations in which Carollo showed up late at night with complaints of certain properties, how code enforcement cited a much-needed valet parking vendor more than 30 times in a month. Fuller said he repeatedly had to leave whatever he was doing to respond to actions he said were directed by Carollo.

Fuller, under questioning Wednesday, admitted to losing his cool one weekend in 2018 when he was forced to leave a park he was visiting with his 3-year-old daughter, to take care of an issue at the popular Gay8Festival in Little Havana. Fuller said he had received a call from the owner of Sanguich de Miami, a free-standing structure that made Cuban sandwiches on one of his properties, who was worried the operation was being “targeted” because of Carollo.

He said when he got there, police, fire rescue and code enforcement officers had stationed next to the eatery. With them was a Carollo senior staffer who had worked on his campaign named Steve Miro. With Fuller’s daughter at his side, the two men got into a “heated” exchange.

“I let him know he was a coward,” Fuller told jurors.

His attorneys showed several videos of cops, fire and code enforcement officers entering Ball & Chain, sometimes on consecutive days, and demanding licenses and permits that he said they had access to digitally on tablets in their vehicles. It was pure intimidation, Fuller said.

“The policy of all my businesses was to video any interactions so you could see the type of harassment we were experiencing,” Fuller told jurors. Ball & Chain was eventually forced to shutdown for a year after its certificate of occupancy was revoked. It reopened in October 2021.

Still another time Fuller told jurors he learned Carollo had pulled permits for events at Domino Park Plaza on the last Friday of every month — blocking Fuller’s popular Viernes Culturales event, a monthly gathering in celebration of culture and arts. The festival was moved to the parking lot of one of their buildings.

“It was the best we could do, but the organization and mission had been destroyed. The board doesn’t even meet anymore,” Fuller said, beginning to cry. “I was proud of Viernes. I remember the day I was honored to join the board and now 14 years later, I was the reason it had been destroyed. It had nothing to do with building inspections or code enforcement. It was a non-profit board. It did good for the community. He did it to destroy my reputation. It was evil.”

Fuller said it all was triggered when the two men threw support behind Carollo political opponent Leon, which they did not intend to make public out of fear of retaliation.

Fuller recalled the day of Nov. 19, 2017, just two days before the runoff between Carollo and Leon for the commission seat. Leon supporters were supposed to be having a “get-out-the-vote” event in the parking lot of one of their businesses. But it turned into a full-blown vote for Leon event and Pinilla showed up. A carollo staffer called Fuller to complain, he said.

“I knew that if we were exposed or outed as a Joe Carollo enemy, there would be political payback,” Fuller said. “I was upset with Pinilla. We wanted to be undercover and our cover was blown.”

Near the end of questioning from his own attorney Courtney Caprio, Fuller began to cry. Shaking, he walked off the stand for a five-minute break but not before saying the feud with the city commissioner had affected his family life.

“I can not stress this enough, in life reputation is everything. My greatest legacy is my children. I want them to be proud of me. I want them to know I did good things for the city. That I celebrated our heritage,” he said, having to take breaks to get it all in. “All of that is called into question. All of it.”