MIAMI — Miami city commissioners are avoiding a legal fight with former Commissioner Joe Carollo.
They agreed to settle a decades-old frozen pension program lawsuit for $770,000, rather than go to trial with Carollo.
But the city still has another legal fight with Carollo, who was a two-time mayor and three-time commissioner before being termed out of office in 2025.
Recently, the commission voted to sue Carollo over legal fees the city spent defending him after two businessmen sued him and won.
The businessmen’s attorney, Jeff Gutchess, told the court in a filing earlier this year that the final judgement of $63 million that a federal civil jury awarded “remains unsatisfied” before enumerating “grounds for garnishment.”
In that case, a federal civil jury found Carollo liable for violating the First Amendment rights of William Fuller and Martin Pinilla, who own the popular Ball & Chain bar in Miami.
“The filings allege that the proposed payment stems from a decades-old lawsuit filed by Carollo against the city concerning pension-related legislative changes and that the settlement is expected to be funded from the City’s general revenues rather than from any protected pension trust or retirement account,” Gutchess told Local 10 News in a statement in May. “What is deeply troubling is that, even after the jury’s findings and the Court’s judgment, the City of Miami continues to aid and abet the very individual found liable for weaponizing government power against private citizens.
“Rather than protecting taxpayers and restoring public trust, the City is now poised to transfer substantial public funds to the perpetrator of that misconduct while the judgment against him remains unpaid.“
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