11th Circuit denies Miami commissioner new trial for retaliating against businessmen

(CN) — An 11th Circuit panel shot down a request for a new trial Thursday from embattled Miami city commissioner and former mayor, Joe Carollo, who was ordered to pay $63.5 million in damages to two businessmen.

In a 19-page opinion, the appellate panel ruled that Carollo’s accusations of jury tampering during his 2023 trial were properly handled by a lower Florida court.

Carollo argued the trial against him was tainted because the judge received a note from a juror, reporting she had been followed into the parking garage by the plaintiffs’ business partner, Zach Bush, whom she recognized attending the trial.

She said Bush followed her into the garage elevator and commented, “I’m following you,” encouraged her to look up the case on social media, and warned that “everyone should be careful.”

But the three-judge panel concluded that the lower court sufficiently investigated Carollo’s claims because each of the jurors were individually questioned and assured that the incident would not affect their impartiality.

Because the contact between Bush and the juror had no connection to the subject matter of the trial, the judge correctly concluded that it was “fleeting and inconsequential,” the panel ruled.

“The contact between Bush and Juror 3 was harmless,” the panel wrote in a per curiam opinion. U.S. Circuit Judges Robin Rosenbaum, a Barack Obama appointee, Elizabeth Branch, a Donald Trump appointee, and Embry Kidd, appointed by Joe Biden, made up the panel.

They added that Carollo’s motion for a mistrial was rightfully denied because the purported extrinsic contact was notprejudicial and that his arguments to the contrary are meritless.

During oral arguments in June, Carollo’s attorney, Elliot Kula, said Bush testified in a separate suit his business brought against the city that he was “vested in the outcome” of the case due to his 20% interest in the jury’s award.

Carollo argued the lower court should have excused the contacted juror, who eventually became the foreperson returning the jury’s $63.5 million verdict, $12.7 million of which belongs Bush.

“As for Bush’s interest in the outcome of the case, this argument again says nothing about the effect of Bush’s contact with Juror 3 on the jury; it is irrelevant,” the panel wrote.

The panel also dismissed the remainder of Carollo’s appeal, determining that they do not have jurisdiction over Carollo’s appeal from the lower court’s denial of his post-trial motions because order did not exist yet when his notice of appeal was filed.

In 2018, William Fuller and Martin Pinilla — two businessmen who work in the Little Havana neighborhood that falls under Carollo’s district — accused him of retaliating against them for supporting his political opponent in a run-off election.

After Carollo won the 2017 election, the businessmen said he attempted to destroy their businesses and reputations through selective investigations and inspections with hopes of shutting them down, even directing SWAT teams to raid businesses run by the plaintiffs’ tenants.

Carollo also publicly accused the men of being “money launderers connected to the communist regime” and called Fuller “a criminal Godfather.” Several other Miami officials expressed concern about Carollo’s behavior towards the plaintiffs. After Fuller filed an ethics complaint against Carollo, he “elevated the attacks” against him and Pinilla.

Attorneys representing Carollo, Fuller and Pinilla did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the ruling.

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