{"id":189376,"date":"2026-03-12T23:22:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T23:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/189376\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T23:22:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T23:22:10","slug":"miami-commissioners-want-millions-back-from-joe-carollo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/189376\/","title":{"rendered":"Miami commissioners want millions back from Joe Carollo"},"content":{"rendered":"

Published:\u00a0March 12, 2026 at 6:39 PM<\/p>\n

Commissioners want him to give back money taxpayers spent on his unsuccessful legal defenseMiami commissioners move to recover legal costs from Joe Carollo after Ball & Chain lawsuit loss Miami city commissioners voted Thursday to pursue legal action against former Commissioner Joe Carollo in an effort to recover taxpayer money spent defending him in legal battles while he was in office. <\/p>\n

MIAMI \u2014 Miami city commissioners voted Thursday to pursue legal action against former Commissioner Joe Carollo<\/a> in an effort to recover taxpayer money spent defending him in legal battles while he was in office.<\/p>\n

Leer en espa\u00f1ol<\/a><\/p>\n

The civil action was approved during a commission meeting at Miami City Hall, where commissioners agreed to try to recoup millions of dollars the city spent defending Carollo, 71, in a lawsuit he ultimately lost.<\/p>\n

Commissioner Miguel Gabela placed the item on the agenda, saying the city should attempt to recover taxpayer funds used to defend Carollo in the case. <\/p>\n

Carollo, who was term-limited and left office late last year, is also seeking about $1.5 million from the city, claiming he was shortchanged on his pension. <\/p>\n

Gabela suggested the city could use that request as leverage since taxpayers spent significantly more defending him.<\/p>\n

However, City Manager James Reyes noted that Carollo\u2019s assets are protected and those funds would likely not be available to satisfy any judgments or settlements.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, the U.S. Supreme Court declined Carollo\u2019s petition to review the case he lost at trial.<\/a><\/p>\n

A federal civil jury found that Carollo violated the First Amendment rights of the owners of the Ball & Chain on Calle Ocho.<\/p>\n

The jury ultimately ordered Carollo to pay $63.5 million in damages.<\/p>\n

Commissioners noted Thursday that their effort to recover about $1 million in taxpayer funds would likely be symbolic, because any money recovered from Carollo would have to come after he satisfies the $63.5 million judgment.<\/p>\n

Carollo has previously said he does not have the money to pay the judgment.<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfe0 News From Your Neighborhood<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WPLG Local10.com – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n

\"TerrellTerrell Forney<\/p>\n

Terrell Forney joined Local 10 News in October 2005 as a general assignment reporter. He was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, but a desire to escape the harsh winters of the north brought him to South Florida.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published:\u00a0March 12, 2026 at 6:39 PM Commissioners want him to give back money taxpayers spent on his unsuccessful…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":189377,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-189376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189376\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}