Two Miami businessmen who won a multi-million dollar verdict against Commissioner Joe Carollo are now seeking to remove him from office.
Bill Fuller and Martin Pinilla filed a complaint in court on Tuesday, arguing that Carollo violated the Citizens' Bill of Rights under the Miami City Charter and therefore must immediately forfeit his position in office.
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"I view this as more of a filing on behalf of the citizens of Miami, said Jeffrey Gutchess, an attorney representing Fuller and Pinilla. "So since that is the official public policy of the city and the official law of the city, we thought it appropriate to file this complaint, asking a judge to make that declaration."
Carollo was found liable in June in a federal civil lawsuit brought by Fuller and Pinilla, who accused him of trying to destroy their businesses as political retaliation.
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Fuller — the owner of the Ball and Chain restaurant and club in Little Havana — and Pinilla claimed Carollo weaponized the city’s police and code enforcement departments to shut down several of their businesses in Little Havana because they supported his political opponent.
The jury found Carollo violated the plaintiffs' First Amendment rights and awarded them more than $63 million.
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In Tuesday's complaint, Fuller and Pinilla provided the verdict and judgment against Carollo, saying the commissioner, "as a 'public official' who was found 'by the court to have willfully violated' the Citizens' Bill of Rights, must immediately 'forfeit his or her office or employment.'"
"It is evident that they are extremely upset that they have not been able to bring me down while I continue to do my honest role and commitment as a public servant," Carollo partly said in response to the complaint written in Spanish and translated by NBC6. "As a strategy, they persist in trying to intimidate Miami residents and honest city employees, showing them the cost of confronting them."
The courts have already ordered Carollo's assets to be seized and his wages garnished.
Carollo has maintained his innocence.
