Who's Paying the $63.5M Judgment Against Commissioner Joe Carollo? No One Knows Yet

Miami City Commissioner Joe Carollo has been ordered to pay Little Havana businessmen $63.5 million.

Up until now, taxpayers have been footing the bill for his legal fees, but who will end up paying the large judgment against him?

The jury’s verdict was a huge victory for businessmen Bill Fuller and Martin Pinilla, but the road to collecting the damages owed to them is a long and complicated one.

The federal lawsuit was against Carollo in his personal capacity, so it’s expected that the burden of paying that judgment will fall on him — but attorney Rick Diaz said it’s not that simple.

“The city could just if they want to continue protecting Mr. Carollo and say, ‘look, let’s try to get this judgment off his back,'" Diaz said. "They may offer, I don’t want to say a nominal settlement, but a reduced amount, a significantly reduced amount in order just to get it taken care of."

Diaz, who’s not involved in this case but has extensive experience in trying public corruption cases, said it’s unlikely the city commission would pay the judgment.

“A lot of this has to do with what the will is of the commission,” Diaz said. “They have a lot of discretion to use their budget as they wish to some degree, but if the question is, legally, can Joe Carollo compel the city to pay the judgment against him? The answer is clearly no, there’s no doubt about that. Will the city do it? In my opinion, the answer is no."

NBC6 asked City Commissioner Manolo Reyes, District 4, who said he’s not in favor of having the city pay the multi-million-dollar judgment.  

“It doesn’t have to be paid by the city,” Reyes said. “The verdict was against Carollo. It was personal against the commissioner; it was not against the city.”

NBC6 tried reaching out to Carollo to get his side but we haven’t heard back, and he wouldn’t answer any questions as he left the courthouse Thursday.

“Unless he pays it out of his own pocket, the city probably won’t and nobody has any reason to believe he has the money,” Diaz said. “There’s a lot of his assets are probably protected like his homestead and other assets, although they could arguably, depending on if his wife works or not, they could take up to 25% of his salary.”

Reyes said he’s waiting to be briefed to see if the city would be liable to pay legal fees as the case enters the appeals phase.

Fuller and Pinilla’s hospitality company has another lawsuit pending against the city itself.