Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo cleared in public corruption investigation
Prosecutors in the Broward State Attorney's Office have cleared Miami City Commissioner Joe Carollo of criminal wrongdoing following a yearslong investigation into accusations that he stalked a Little Havana businessman and threatened a former police chief.
In a closeout memo Monday, Julio Gonzalez, who heads Broward's Public Corruption Unit, said the state 'cannot prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Carollo's actions rose to a criminal offense as it pertains to his dealings with' Ball & Chain owner Bill Fuller and Art Acevedo, the former Miami police chief.
Gonzalez wrote that the matter can be referred back to the city of Miami for a possible administrative investigation. Broward County sometimes investigates public corruption matters out of Miami-Dade County because of conflicts of interest.
Fuller previously won in a federal civil lawsuit against Carollo, with a jury awarding him and businessman Martin Pinilla $63.5 million. Jurors found that Carollo weaponized police and code enforcement officers in retaliation against Fuller and Pinilla after they supported his 2017 election opponent.
Acevedo, meanwhile, filed a lawsuit in 2022 against Carollo and two other commissioners who voted to fire him in 2021, accusing the defendants of violating his First Amendment rights and illegally retaliating against him for 'speaking out against corruption and abuse of power by the City of Miami Commission.' That lawsuit is ongoing.
The positive news for Carollo lands the same week as a campaign fundraiser that Miami First, the political committee tied to the commissioner, is hosting to raise money for his potential mayoral campaign.
Carollo said Tuesday that he has not decided if he's running for mayor, saying that other people organized the event. The commissioner faced scrutiny for the timing of the fundraiser, which was scheduled on the same day as the memorial services for Commissioner Manolo Reyes, who died last week.
Reached for comment, Carollo acknowledged that the timing wasn't ideal but said it wasn't intentional.
'This is something that had been planned way before,' Carollo said. 'It's not in my control to cancel something that others have done, and this has got nothing to do with Manolo.'
'I wish it would've been on another day, but that's the day that it fell on,' he added.
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