Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo is finally getting the scrutiny he has long deserved | Opinion
Underneath his signature bravado and the slate of lawyers representing him, Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo is sweating this one.
Finally, the powerful commissioner — infamous for behaving like a schoolyard bully from his City Hall perch — is being held accountable in a court of law for running Little Havana as if it were his private fiefdom.
He finally messed with the wrong people — two business partners, William “Bill” Fuller and Martin Pinilla — who wouldn’t allow Carollo, a former Miami mayor, to harass them into shutting down their popular restaurant-bar-music venue Ball & Chain on Calle Ocho.
The men took notes, photos and videos, documenting Carollo’s relentless persecution after they supported his opponent in the election — and they filed a federal lawsuit in 2018 against him alleging that he abused his authority to target them, violating their First Amendment rights.
So far, Carollo has lost every move to avoid facing up to his deeds.
He wanted the trial before a Miami jury more likely to be sympathetic to his perennial go-to defense: that everything is a Communist plot against him.
But the civil trial was set at the Broward federal courthouse before U.S. District Court Judge Rodney Smith to avoid biased jurors and limit political influence. The case and its Broward jury, which is being provided transportation, was moved to the Miami federal courthouse because of the historic-level flooding in Fort Lauderdale.
Some would chalk the bad weather up to karma.
Carollo, Acevedo & Miami
The move brought back former Miami Police Chief Art Acevedo to the same town where Carollo publicly humiliated and vilified him — eventually getting him fired — to testify about Carollo’s possibly unlawful conduct in office.
Now the police chief of Aurora, Colorado, Acevedo was the star witness Tuesday in the multimillion-dollar lawsuit.
The high-profile chief has long maintained that during his short six-month tenure, the commissioner exerted political pressure to use city resources to go after businesses owners who crossed him.
His fixation was on Fuller and Pinilla properties, whether in operation or under construction, as in the case of a Mexican-style taquería.
Although Carollo’s lawyers claim that the fired chief has an ax to grind, Miami’s former top cop showed he can hold his own on the witness stand.
Anticipating Carollo’s other favorite alibi — everything is a conspiracy against him because he’s Cuban — he told jurors: “Oh yes, I’m Cuban, despite what you might have heard from the defendant here.”
Most damning, perhaps, is that other law enforcement witnesses to Carollo’s alleged behavior backed up Acevedo’s assertions.
Also testifying was Acevedo’s predecessor, former police chief Jorge Colina, and Assistant Police Chief Richie Blom. All confirmed that Carollo had a persistent and particular obsession with cracking down, not only on Ball & Chain, but other Little Havana properties owned by Fuller and Pinilla.
Blom, who used to be Carollo’s chief of staff, testified that Carollo ordered him to get out of the car and measure the distance from the front door of Fuller’s property to a neighboring church.
Carollo’s intent: To pull the club’s liquor license if it was within 150 feet, Blom said.
Colina testified that, despite Carollo’s public hectoring at a 2019 City Commission over the lack of action by police and code enforcement act against Fuller and Pinilla properties, he didn’t give into political pressure.
Last week, former Miami City Manager Emilio Gonzalez testified that he said a cordial relationship with Carollo — until the subject of Ball & Chain came up. He, too, said that the commissioner “targeted” other businesses owned by Fuller and Pinilla — and that police and code inspectors complied with Carollo’s demands for fear of retaliation.
In essence, they’ve all described a Miami run by Carollo as if he were a mob boss.
No wonder the police chief and city manager posts are perennial revolving doors.
One can only hope that Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle, often criticized for not pursuing local corruption cases, is paying attention to the testimony being given under oath. If crimes were committed, she can’t afford to turn a blind eye.
Trial shenanigans
After testifying at the trial Tuesday, Acevedo said he was followed by private investigators.
READ MORE: After testifying against Carollo, fired Miami police chief says private eyes tailed him
Witness intimidation?
Acevedo, who videotaped the men and reported them to Coral Gables police, thinks so.
An attempt to “harass and intimidate me as a witness,” he told the Herald.
“The integrity of our court system depends on the protection of witnesses and other case participants,” he said in a statement. “A full investigation should be conducted to uncover the truth as to who hired these individuals and the motive behind their actions.”
They told police they worked for the state attorney’s office, but later took it back.
Isn’t it illegal to lie to police?
It has taken two businessmen fed up with corruption — and a star witness police chief who wouldn’t play along with the city’s usual Third World politics — to bring before the justice system what voters should’ve dismantled at the voting booth a long time ago: Carollo’s personal grip over Little Havana.
The people who live and work in the colorful historic enclave, once imagined as a vibrant Latin Quarter, shouldn’t be Carollo’s or any other politician’s to bully and manipulate at whim.
After my April 19 column, “Looks like Miami Beach may have its own version of George Santos in Fabián Basabe” was published, the Republican state lawmaker changed his vote on the Florida Kidcare Program Eligibility for the third time, back to Yes. Basabe says the No vote was an aide’s error.
