The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - #BecauseMiami: Family Un-Ties

Episode Date: April 19, 2024

This week on Because Miami, the fight against book banning in Florida continues, but with a new twist. Activist Chaz Stevens wants to ban the bible, dictionary and thesaurus from school libraries. He talks to Billy Corben about it. Tomas Kennedy, spokesperson for the Florida Immigrant Coalition, joins the show to talk about a state law loosening restrictions for companies to provide heat stress protections to agricultural and construction workers. And Tanjha Quintana is a former receptionist in Joe Carollo's office. She details the period of misery that she went through while holding that job. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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The new law goes into effect for Florida schools. It will ban books and learning materials that discuss pornographic or quote, inappropriate content for kids. Well, an activist from Boca Raton is already testing that law when it comes to one very famous book, The Bible, which has several mentions of things like incest as well as sexual assault. If you want to see for yourself, you can look up these specific verses in The Bible. The Bible battle started with this letter that activist Chaz Stevens sent to 62 school districts across the state, including Lee County. The letter goes as far as for asking for the banishment of any book that references the Bible. Pen America, a group that fights book bans, issued a report this week saying that Florida is responsible for 72% of the books that have been pulled from the nation's schools in the

first half of this school year. Who could have predicted this would be the case, you know, a couple years ago when they passed this bill to make it easier. Roy's raising his hand. Roy saw this coming and now... I just saw it coming from a black issue, not just pornography and everything like that. They're not going to allow children to read anything about race, like Jackie Robinson. And anything about the LGBTQ plus community, black history black history uh... and but communism super bad super bad bro

ronda santas the florida governor had to roll back this policy in limit how and why books can be banned by whom how often can it be by parents who don't have children in a school district who can do it blaming liberal activists for that often can it be by parents who don't have children in a school district who can do it and he's blaming liberal activists for that but pen America said that's just not the case because most the vast majority of book bands have been for exactly what we were just talking about black history lgbtq plus issues a lot of them driven by moms for taking liberties you know the organization uh you know crystal fascist yeah yeah yeah the organization who is all about family

values and also lesbian threesomes Roy you're familiar yes I am with with them and so when Ron DeSantis office was pressed could you give us examples of liberal activists who have been responsible for book bans they came up with one name and that is Florida activist Chaz Stevens, who is famous for taking the First Amendment out for a spin whenever he can, trying to get, compel local governments to put Festivist polls outside of City Hall,

trying, most importantly, to get City Commission meetings to start with satanic prayers, and sending custom-made butt plugs to naughty politicians, not only in Florida, but across the country. Chaz Stevens is here. Chaz, why are you causing so much trouble? Chaz, why are you single-handedly responsible for the Florida legislature and the governor having to roll back and restrict some of these book ban issues? Why are you doing this? I didn't realize I was in charge of 23 million people, but here I am, people. They had to pick on somebody, so they chose me, Billy, and I'm the worst person to choose.

You know, before we start, do you mind if we say a prayer from the Satanic Bible? Ah. And open it up, please. And here we go. Oh, Satan and Miller High Life. And this is from page 69. 69. Bless us with your fury, wisdom and cheap thrills. May our debates be heated and our beer forever chilled. Amen. That's actually in the book. Amen.

Page 69. Lomé. Page 69. It's his favorite passage. Chaz, why, actually, Roy first. You remember we were proponents on this program of banning this filthy, dirty book. And we were actually inspired, Chas, by you. I'm gonna roll a clip for you so you can see what it is

that you inspired the mischief here on Because Miami. The books that were identified as school districts as being problematic, they were pornographic, violent, or inappropriate for the grade level in some other manner. It's time to ban books and get the smut out of our schools. Florida school libraries are filled with pornographic landmines. Pornographic landmines.

The more I dug, the worse it got. In fact, one of the filthiest books ever written is still plaguing our children. The Bible! The book graphically discusses prostitution, incest, rape, pornography, pedophilia, nudity, bestiality, and sodomy. But it actually doesn't end there. There was more.

So much more. Masturbation, gentle mutilation, fellatio, dildos. Let us walk properly, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality. That is pornographic. Why would we have that in a media center with a 10 year old students?

It's just wrong. You're goddamn right, meatball. A woman must not present herself to an animal to have sexual relations with it. I just think parents, when they're sending their kids to school, they should not have to worry about this garbage being in the schools. Now kill all the boys and kill every woman

who has slept with a man, but save for yourself every girl who has never slept with a man. The idea that that's even in there is inappropriate for these young kids. It is for the greatness of your iniquity that your skirts are lifted up and you are violated. How is that an appropriate use of taxpayer dollars? Smite the smut, ban this big bad book. It should not be offered to children. Governor DeSantis, the parents of Florida, thank you. Thank you. Now, Chas, you have actually raised challenges in dozens

of school districts, according to the Associated Press, over the Bible, dictionaries, and thesauruses. Why? So we have a problem in Florida of little Jimmy kissing little Billy, but it's okay for little Jimmy to read the book and cannibalism, right? Little Billy like he's a chicken wing. It's just crazy what's in the Bible. You know, you guys quoted Ezekiel, right? Little Billy like he's a chicken wing. It's just crazy what's in the Bible. You guys quoted Ezekiel, right? In Ezekiel, it says if you spill your seed, you have to give your pastor two turtle doves. So I'm going to pass this along to your audience. I got the turtle doves.

The turtle doves, they look like pigeons. Please don't blame Jeff Bezos. Also in the Bible, Billy, this is my favorite psalm. You ready for this? Hang on to your hat. Hang on to your hat, here we go. Happy is he who smashes babies against the rocks. Happy is he who smashes, Psalm 137, nine,

smashing babies against the rocks. So this is what we want in elementary school. We don't want math. We don't want Hawk Finn, but it's okay with little babies. I almost said a bad word. So here I am. You can say some bad words on this show, but then some of them you're going to give Roy a hard time. You're going to have to bleep them. Oh, that's BS. No, totally BS. Chaz, what was the response to your complaints? I

think by law, if there is an objection raised, they have to immediately take the book off the shelves pending an investigation, right? So did any of that happen with the Bible or the dictionaries or the thesaurus? All right, Billy, I'm going to get serious here for just a second. Oh, good. A little difficult for me at times. Two years ago, I started this. $40,000 of my own money, my own time out the door, two lawyers and I finally got to where they just two days ago said, yeah, we're putting the Bible in. They ignored me. You talked about the thesaurus. I wanted to ban Disney movies,

Cars, the Cars movie, no Cars 2 because at the end, you know, when they had thrown lemons out and they had a lemon party. I thought, who wants to teach little kids about lemon parties? That's not a good idea. And the thesaurus or thesaurus, as I like to say, the dictionary, the Book of Talmud, the Old Testament, blah, blah, blah. They ignored it. But wait, Billy, here's the thing that everybody misses.

In 11th grade, little Jimmy is going to Google Google, he's gonna Google things, right? He's gonna do everything online. They often just said, well, we don't have the Bible physically in the library, so we're good to go. But they have access to it. They have access to the Bible. Like little Jimmy has access to Jugg's magazine, and we block that.

And I, from day one, said, I don't care about the physical Bible. I want you to ban electronically banned access to the Bible. They have ignored me. And just recently they said we don't know how to handle that. The school board told me this behind the scenes. We don't know how to handle that. So we're kicking that down the road. I said that was my argument for two years and $40,000 of my own money. And now we're just getting to the point. Well, we don't have to respond to you. But we don't have a physical Bible, but we're going to let the electronic Bible.

So I'm thinking that we should allow Playboy Magazine until we can get to the Bible. For little Jimmy and also for little Billy. And what about little Roy? What about little Susie? Little Susie might like it, right? What 11th grader hasn't discovered porn on the internet? Come on. I had porn when I was two million years old.

I had porn in 11th grade, come on. These are kids with the internet, they know. Chas, before we talk about butt plugs, I do wanna talk about, for those of you listening and not watching, there is a butt plug, a quite large one it looks like hanging behind you. How big is that butt plug, Chas? It's the biggest one I can find online. It's the size of a World War II mortar.

It's 11 inches tall, seven inches wide and weighs nine pounds. I mailed one to Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago. You can't send things through the mail. There's a federal law that says mailing obscenities are against the law. And I thought I almost got in trouble. So my buddy and mine, we wrapped it with duct tape because we thought it's wrapped up, right? And we sent it to Mar-a-Lago. We also sent, you know, I did those, you know, the inflatable butt plugs, the guys at six feet tall. I sent, I bought 20 something, 15, 20 of them.

I sent a half a dozen to Mar-a-Lago. I sent butt plugs to Dr. Oz that went with the receipt. So somebody at the Dr. Oz's Plaza, you know, signed for it. So, yeah. And out that Colorado or Arizona, as you well know. Chas, we got 60 seconds left. I understand that you are suing your Florida state rep, Republican Chip Lamarca for violating your civil rights. Can you can you tell us about that?

Yeah, he's a ready for the beep. He's a little f***er. So, Chip is, Chip violated, he blocked me on Twitter. You can't do that. The Supreme Court of the United States just recently said, can't do that. Chip has blocked me. I asked him to unblock me. So I filed suit against Donald Trump to get him off the ballot, like two or three months ago. I literally pro se, my own money, my own time, my own lawyering bad. But that went nowhere because of the Supreme Court. So now I said beep beep. I said let's go to the federal court. Yeah. Let's go to the federal court.

I'll do pro se up in the federal court. I'll sue Triplamarket. So stand by Billy. It's things to come. Well, Vicki Mendez has something to tell you. You are a vile little man. Chad Stevens, thanks so much for being here. For the win. Dukats here from my friends over at Simply Safe.

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until every worker is treated with the respect and dignity we all deserve. ["Dreams of a New World"] Ah, sigh. Just long sigh. Obviously, in the state of Florida, farming and construction are major industries. In Miami-Dade alone, the estimate is about 325,000 workers who labor outdoors for sometimes 12 hours at a time. And a lot of them are about to drop dead now.

Well, Miami-Dade County Commission was trying to pass a local ordinance that would require construction sites and farms to give workers just a little break in the shade and water. I don't even think it was like that onerous and unreasonable, and the state legislature just ripped out the power and the ability of local governments to to confront these issues and deal you know not every county may have

This number of workers to look out for their health and safety But it just strikes me is I listen to this quote from Ron DeSantis Quote it really wasn't anything that was coming from me. There was a lot of concern out of one county, Miami-Dade. They were pursuing what was going to cause a lot of problems down there. What? What is he talking about? This word salad is as close to, you know, fruits and vegetables as this guy gets. And like, we have people, workers, many of them immigrants, working out in these fields in one of, if not the hottest

state in the union and getting hotter every single year. And what is the point of this? Tomas Kennedy is a spokesperson for the Florida Immigrant Coalition. Is cruelty the point here? Is this a pro big business, Bill, who the f*** was supporting this? Was lobbying for this? Sorry Roy. What I meant to say was who the f*** was supporting this? Thanks Billy.

Donata. Well Billy, the thing to note here is that it doesn't just erase these, as you say, not onerous, these, as you say, not onerous, very honestly minimal heat stress protections that were on the cusp of being enacted in Miami-Dade, right? The law also erases local living wage laws adopted by cities across Florida, right? Remember, via referendum, over 60% of Floridians voted to raise the minimum wage after a number of years to $15 an hour. Now, localities cannot go over the threshold of the state's current minimum wage, right?

And it actually also stops predictive scheduling laws from being enacted so that workers can have some sense of cohesion and organization within their lives and their workplace. Let's go back a little bit. Let's return to the effort in Miami-Dade County to enact these very reasonable heat stress protections. We count the organization that you referenced did an incredible job advocating for it. And the lobbying and interference by industry on this effort started in Miami,

Dade County. There was a lot of back and forth in terms of the language of these heat stress protections, the enforcement. And what happened was that last year there was an insane heat wave in South Florida. We saw temperatures not seen, you know, in decades perhaps ever. And some farm workers actually dropped dead because of the heat that they were exposed to. So finally the Miami-Dade commission seemed, you know, poised to take this on. And what happened? Industry lobbyists turned their attention from Miami-Dade County to the state to enact this preemption. And you're asking me who is behind this? It's, you know, the same actors, the usual suspects. It's the Florida Chamber of Commerce represents employers like Publix, like Big Sugar, right?

Universal Studios, the big gorillas in the room. So that's what happened here. Industry, puppeteering, these useless, feckless, corrupt, pay to play politicians in Tallahassee stepped in to stop this. Is this just the most cynical and gruesome bit of bean counting? Is this a calculation of, oh, if we give our workers a 10 minute break every four hours,

or whatever it is, there's just shade and water to get out of 100 plus degree heat that they're baking in hour after hour, day after day, year after year, that's going to reduce our output or our productivity. But we're willing to lose a few. We're willing to allow a few people to, as you put it, drop dead because we're not afraid of the legal repercussions of that. Perhaps some of these people because of their immigration status, there's not going to be wrongful death lawsuits. Perhaps they sign these sort of onerous kind of Faustian deals employee contracts where they don't even have any sort of rights or ability to sue or their families have the ability to sue

for wrongful death. What is the calculus here that these industries are willing to allow their own workers to die rather than give them a sip of water? I'll tell you what the actual lawmakers who debated this law said on committee, right? On one of the committees that consider amendments, you know, and passage of this law. They said, you know, straight from the 1980s Reagan era, you know, economic theory that why wouldn't these companies want to protect their workers, right? Because when you protect your workers, you have a thriving workplace, right? And everything runs

smoothly. So it's in the best interest of these companies to do so. And having the government medal here, why would we allow that, right? Meanwhile, back in the real world, temperatures keep rising, workers don't have heat stress protections, they are being exploited at the workplace and workers are getting sick and dying, right? I mean, that's actually happening. I mean, I'll tell you, look,

I obviously don't work outdoors now and I'm not a construction worker, I'm not an agricultural worker, but I was when I was undocumented and my dad is still a construction worker. I worked construction for a number of years, you know, my dad still does, you know, he has suffered health complications from it, he needed a double hip replacement from the toll that it's taken on his body and it really, you know, he has suffered health complications from it. He needed a double hip replacement from the toll that it's taken on his body. And it really upsets me that workers like my dad, agricultural workers are exposed to much harsher conditions.

You know, and people like my dad, you know, have this type of representation that, you know, excuse my language, doesn't give a shit about them and is willing to allow their employers and these big companies and corporations to cut corners, you know, in the pursuit of profit above all. And that's the bottom line, right? I don't want to sound, you know, whatever, but it's profit, profit, profit, profit above everything else. I don't know about the agricultural workers and I'm not sure about the construction workers but there aren't any unions that most of these employees are involved in that might be able to fight this.

No, right? It's a right to work state, right? Oh yeah. The unions have been very supportive of these heat standards, right? And these heat stress protections. The problem is that, you know, Tallahassee is completely pay to play, you know? The Florida Chamber of Commerce is who's calling the shots there.

That's the sad truth. And that's who the, you know, the politicians in power, the one who controls the committees, the one who control, you know, both chambers of the legislature, you know, the governor's office, their response to again, the Florida Chamber of Commerce and the business interests and the business interests have no interest in enacting these heat stress protections because they don't give a shit about the workers. Tomas, we got two minutes left. I understand you told me that you wanted to ask me a question. So I'll give you the last two minutes. I'm being interviewed now, Roy.

We're switching roles? Yes. Billy, I heard you have a big announcement to make. And I want to ask you, how long was the gun held to your head for you to make this decision? What was the threshold that it had to be met for you to say, OK, I'm doing this? Well, the Miami Herald broke yesterday that I've been circling the race, Roy, to run for the Miami-Dade Democratic Executive Committee

chair position. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha that Florida Democratic Chairwoman Nikki Fried removed the Miami-Dade Party Chair and at least one or two others for violating the bylaws. And now we are without a chair. And so far there was only one person, State Senator Chevron Jones, who I like very much. Yes, Chevron, that's my man. I like very much, but he's the only person running. And that's not exactly democracy. That's

not exactly an election. And with all due respect to Shev, I feel like it keeps us on a similar course to the one we're on, which as you know, the Democrats in Florida never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. Billy, I'm hearing the marketplace of ideas. I love it. Billy, give us your your one, two minute elevator pitch to why you're doing this First Luther Campbell now you I mean my god competition is good for the marketplace and But obviously it's essential for democracy and a marketplace a robust marketplace of ideas is good for the voters And so we need to have serious open dialogue

about the defects of this party, particularly the Miami-Dade Democrats, where the party has been hijacked by consultant cowboys, really a cartel of for-profit grifters who have exploited the goodwill, the time, the volunteers of the party in an effort to profit them. I'm really, we're talking about people like Christian Olver, who is not interested in helping Democrats get elected, which is what the party is supposed to do. He's interested in lining his own pockets. And so we need to have open conversation about this if we're ever going to reform this party because let's be clear the

Florida Democrats don't have a damaged brand It is a dead brand and the only way to reform this and bring this back to life in any meaningful way and not have One-party rule which is not good regardless of your Ideology one-party rule is not good for that marketplace of ideas and not good for the state of Florida and the voters and the people of this state. They deserve to have two strong, at least two, I would hope for more, but at least two strong political parties to come to the table and have a robust debate about what is best for policy and to compromise on some of these terrible, terrible ideas. And I got to tell you, this party is not equipped, not equipped at all for that future. And that is a debate that we need to have

openly and honestly, and we need to stop gaslighting the people of Florida, stop gaslighting the donors of the Democratic Party, stop gaslighting the people talk about Florida is in play. Bullshit. Florida is not in play. This is just a question now whether or not... To pay for play. Amen. This is a question of whether or not Donald Trump is going to beat Biden in Florida by single digits or double digits. So when we go out there and put these, to borrow your

term, Tomas, cringe posts out into the world, it's not good for our credibility. It's damaging. And donors are not going to come back to the table when we have a plan, and we're ready to move forward, and we're ready to reform and create real progress here in the party. And it's just embarrassing. And I don't want to be embarrassed. I've been a Democrat since 2018. It kind of sucks, and I don't want it to keep sucking. It's a little bit embarrassing.

Honestly, Billy, I'm so excited that you're doing this. You're a truth teller. You're somebody that holds both sides accountable. You're not bought out by anyone. You don't have a career stake or a political stake on this. You're an independent voice. At the risk of sounding like DJ Khaled, though, they don't want me to win.

And I don't think I have a prayer at winning because these grifters are going to start. It's a, by the way, Roy, it's a public vote. It's not an anonymous or secret ballot. So everybody's going to get threatened. Everybody's going to get cajoled. Everybody's going to, there's no way they can let me come anywhere near this job, right? It doesn't matter. It's what you said. It's about having the conversation. I mean, you have been taking on public corruption in Miami for years now and delivering results as happened with the city attorney, as happened with checking Noriega, with getting some, or helping to get some good people

in the city of Miami commission, holding politicians accountable. I mean, that's what we should be doing, right? So I'm just really excited for the next couple of days and what you bring to the table. Yeah, the election is like in a week, by the way, Roy. There's not gonna be a really long campaign here. But Tomas is, I'm very flattered that you said what you said, but he's writing that the last Democrat in Miami-Dade County to be elected, the party ran against him. in Miami-Dade County to be elected, the party ran against him.

That was Damien Pardo. And the party lost to a Democrat. The Democrat party, that's what losers we are. And now the opponent is being criminally investigated for bribery, remuneration of services. And the only reason the party endorsed her was because she was a Christian overt client. And the Miami-Dade state attorney had to recuse herself from this public corruption

investigation into bribery of Sabina Kovos' bribery case because Christian Olvert is also the political consultant and campaign manager for Catherine Fernandez-Rundle. Let me tell you this right now, a Democratic candidate in Catherine Fernandez-Rundle who has to recuse herself from every single substantive public corruption case because she's conflicted. If you're conflicted in every single public corruption case, what does that say about you? I think that says that you might be corrupt. Tomas Kennedy, thank you so much for being here.

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On Wednesday, Carollo's former secretary, Tanya Quintana, took the stand testifying in front of the jury that she was coerced by the commissioner and his wife Marjorie to falsely accuse other former Corolla staff of sexual harassment, not once, but twice. Tanya Gintana testified last year at the now infamous ball and chain case, the corruption case against Joe Corollo, commissioner of the city of Miami, that resulted in a $63.5 million judgment against him for violating the First Amendment rights of those business owners on Cuyocho and Little Havana for political retaliation.

Tanja is joining us now. Tanja, first and foremost, how did you get a job in Joe Corollo's office? So I actually got a job with him through Marjorie, his wife. Since she is related to my uncle's wife. She, I guess, I don't know what happened to the last receptionist, but she called me one night and said that they needed a receptionist and that I could start the next day.

Yeah, seems to be a lot of turnover in that office. A lot of people coming and going, a lot of chiefs of staff, a lot of receptionists, a lot of legislative aides office. A lot of people coming and going, a lot of chiefs of staff, a lot of receptionists, a lot of legislative aides. I have to ask, what is the environment like? We hear a lot of rumors about a lot of screaming, a lot of harassment coming from the commissioner himself. Is it a toxic work environment like the Chisme says?

Like las malas lenguas say? A thousand percent, las malas Lenguas are correct. That is one of the most toxic environments I've ever worked in. And I've worked in a lot. I've worked in restaurants mostly. And that is the most toxic environment I've ever worked in in my life. Can you give me an example of what it was like day to day in that office? How Corollo treated you, other staff members? Well, when he was there,

because there were times where I wouldn't see his face for like a month or so. But when he was there, you could tell. The environment was just like, I don't know, heavier. Like it just felt like big brother was watching you. I don't know, you just felt so like watched and everything like had to be correct. And then he would come sometimes and then like check if you were doing something

and then ask you to do something else. It was always like a little back and forth and stuff. And it was just it was it was terrible. What does back and forth mean, though? Did it get loud at times with the the deputy chief of staff? Then to what would get into like, I guess, arguments sometimes. I don't really remember what it was about, but I would just know that Carollo would be like, yelling at him and then he would be yelling back and it was just a mess.

Let me ask you about what you testified to at the trial. You basically admitted to perjury, you admitted that you had previously lied under oath when you accused two former staff members, I guess fellow staff members in Joe Carollo's commission office, Steve Moreau and Richie Blom of unwanted advances of sexual harassment. How did you come to, I guess, concoct those allegations against them? Basically, this man, Carollo, had me write a letter. Better yet, he wrote a letter and had me say that I wrote it. Basically saying everything that you just said, Blom was being like, not aggressive,

but like on top of me, I guess. And then it's the same thing with Miro. He wrote like a whole letter, but he would take me to like this Burger King. I guess it's like infamous Burger King. He would take me there to write this like letter. And then he also took me to my uncle's house to talk about the same letter and then go through my phone. So Roy, what Corollo does is he goes to this Burger King and has meetings there. I don't know exactly why.

It's just this weird thing that he's done for a long time. Well, rather than I think have meetings at his office where people can kind of see the comings and goings. But also I understand. Go to an Arby's. Did they take you, have some class, right Roy? Yeah, hard to beat. So I understand that, first of all, Muro and Richie Blum

became basically enemies of Corollo because they resigned. They admitted that Corollo had this personal vendetta against the ball and chain guys, against Martin Pena and Bill Fuller, and he needed to muddy them up, I guess, and make them harm their credibility, and he was using you apparently to do that. Was Marjorie involved in that?

I remember, I recall some testimony where they might've taken you to their home and kind of like separated you from your mom and like a divide and conquer kind of strategy. I mean, was that sensibly kidnapping? What was, what did they do to you? It might as well have been. That was the second time actually,

when it came out that I took part in the letter that Richard Blum wrote about Carollo. When Carollo found out that I wrote part of that letter or whatever that I was mentioned in the letter, him and Marjorie and my uncle's wife, And then in Cartagena, I found out that I wrote part of that letter or whatever that I was mentioned in the letter. Him and Marjorie and my uncle's wife, I guess my aunt, but like not really. I don't count these people as my family anymore. But yeah, so her, they all took me to her house. And that's where they basically harassed me, like called me every name in the book, asked me why I would do that, why I was setting him up, etc.

etc. Just gaslighting. Oh, they thought you were working with Richie Blom to like against Corollo. Was that true? No. Well, kind of, I guess. I can say now, yes, but back then I was supposed to say no. You see, like, that's the thing is there was a certain point where I didn't really know what was the truth and what wasn't. Like, it just got to a point where I was just like, okay, like, what's, like, what am I supposed to say?

Like, am I supposed to say the truth? Am I supposed to say this? Do I not tell them this? Oh my God, it was a mess. Was that a, why? Because was that an environment where you felt like you were being trained or coerced into lying or? Yeah, a thousand percent most of the time well and of course there was this family element, too

So you were probably intimidated or kind of emotionally manipulated by that. How would you describe? That was the worst part. That was the worst part about any of this is what happened to my family They basically destroyed it him and Marjorie basically happened to my family. They basically destroyed it. Him and Marjorie basically, they, at a certain point they got my grandma against me, which basically got my whole family against me. But then my grandma started realizing that I was in the right. So then she got back on my side. But pretty much everybody else after a certain point, now is when they're understanding. Now, when everything is coming to light, they're like, oh my god, I'm so sorry, but back then it was It was terrible. Nobody they made it like so nobody wanted anything to do with me. They made me out to be the bad guy

Let's talk about that because last year When you were about to testify They cleared the courtroom out the media had to leave the had to leave, and they basically had a secret proceeding, which is, I mean, obviously now it's not a secret, but there was a conversation apparently about potential witness tampering or witness intimidation against you where Joe Correio and or his wife Marjorie were attempting to get to you to stop you from testifying? Something like that, yeah. My uncle's wife, apparently the night before, called my grandma and mentioned, basically telling her, like,

oh, tell Tonja not to do this. Like, she can't do this. This is what she's going to do. This is how she's going to affect Carolla's reputation and Carollo and this and Marjorie and this. And yeah, that was the night before, I think. And so you admitted earlier before that you might have been helping some people against Carollo, but I'm guessing there was a reason for that, wasn't there?

Why were you helping him? He's a terrible person. And he's a terrible person. And I hope he watches this because he needs to know. Oh, he is he is he watching he watches every single one of these episodes little Billy Corbin. He loves this show This is your little Twitter account little Billy and last question Do you have a message for Joe Corrello or Marjorie Corrello and about the kind of people they are, the kind of office he runs, what they did to you and your family? I just hope they both get what's coming to them.

That's all I can say. Karma is a bitch and the people that don't do good in this life are not going to have good done to them. And I hope that whatever they deserve is exactly what they got. In God we trust. Is that God that's been protecting me? Yep. Amen. Tanya Quintana, thank you so much for being here. Of course. Thank you for having me. Before we go, Roy, we got to do a victory lap, but this one's going to be a sprint, not a marathon, because we are running out of time.

First and foremost, yesterday in the Miami Herald, they broke a story about some new emails deepening the scandal around Sabina Kovo, the former city commissioner, and the criminal investigation into her for possible bribery, which is a story that broke right here on the Because Miami podcast last November. And thank you to Sarah Blaski and Joey Fletches

of the Miami Herald for giving us that thank you to Sarah Blaski and Joey Fletches of the Miami Herald for giving us that credit. It looks like some emails and text messages back up the story that former candidate James Torres talked about here where he was offered a job in exchange for his endorsement of Sabina. He turned it down, but Eddie Lial, one of the other opponents, apparently accepted it.

And there's now a bit of a digital paper trail on that so um She might be f**ked. Sorry Roy. I couldn't I couldn't. Thanks Billy. I'm sorry Roy. Also Change is slow and incremental, but thanks to the pressure that we've applied the conflict of interest scandal involving Miami City manager Art Noriega and his wife's overpriced furniture company, Predairy Office Products, has ended with the city cutting ties with Predairy Furniture. They will no longer use that vendor to overpay for furniture on the taxpayer's dime as long as Art Noriega is the city manager,

and that obvious unethical, if not illegal, conflict of interest exists which you know that indicates to me Artur Noriega is not going to be the city manager for very much longer and speaking of the which tricky Vicki Mendez your friend the city attorney the city attorney of Miami is now the former city attorney in a vote taken last week. RE-20 seeks to remove the city attorney from her current role in terms of running the city attorney's office and move her to a transitionary role. The city attorney has been at times insubordinate and at times disrespectful.

I don't believe that's conduct becoming of that position. Furthermore, I personally do not have confidence in the information that I receive. I believe we have these major goals right here and now that require us to make that change and also show the residents that change has happened in this position. I have a motion and a second for RE 20 as amended. All in favor?

Aye. That was the voice. I should have waited for the laugh. I should have waited for the laugh, Roy. The first voice you heard was the voice of Commissioner Damien Pardo who made the motion and introduced the item. The second voice was Chairwoman Christine King, who called for the vote. And that third voice, the only nay, four to one. I'll give you three guesses who that was. He's a wife, be her wife, be her. Yeah.

Yeah, let's drop the roll, yeah. And the fourth voice was me laughing. That was, I should have waited for the laugh. I, there, right? But we do have one one loss. We had some we had some racked up some wins this week. Roy some progress here on because Miami but one loss that is this week's because Miami how it started how it's going first how it started on March 14th 2024.

Our release report to the media. I'll meet with them individually. I'll sit with Billy Corbin across the table and I'll present everything to him. I have no issue with that at all, by the way. Billy Corbin to me is someone that clearly has a lot of followers and a lot of people that are interested in what he says. I'm happy to give him the information. I'm happy to sit with him.

I'll answer whatever questions he has. I have a long history with Billy Corbin. So I'm not hiding from it and I won't run from it. Bad news, Roy, he is hiding from it and he is running from it. Just a few days ago, I got an email from Kenya Fallot, chief propagandist for the criminal regime that is the city of Miami government.

Billy, since you've been eager to pose questions to the city manager, please adhere to his preference by sending your inquiries via email and remember to include Yadi. The bottom line is he's backing out of his public promise and his promise to his bosses in the commission to sit down right here in this chair. The chair will remain empty for Elijah for Passover because he is a lying, corrupt clown, Art Noriega. Does not have the guts to be a man of his word and answer all of my

questions as he promised to do. Finally, this Miami moment you might remember I think it was now two years ago Roy, you, me and Dan interviewed activist civil rights attorney, former legislator, songwriter, poet, environmentalist, and rabbi Barry Silver. You've been doing this for that long? It certainly feels longer. I know I was listening. But I have some bad news. Rabbi Silver passed away at the age of 67.

He was a great guy, a funny guy, a powerful guy, and he was a plaintiff in the lawsuit against the state of Florida for violating the First Amendment rights of Jews to practice our religion, which includes a right to abortion to preserve the life of the mother. And our Miami moment this week is a few words from this program, because Miami, from Rabbi Barry Silver, rest in power, cocaine's. The main point of the lawsuit is this. We as Jews have the right to be Jews by taking the fundamentalist Christian view and make it the law of the land. That's establishing

religion and it's also preventing Jewish people from exercising their rights as Jews. These fundamentalist Christians, these self-righteous, pompous, ignorant people who call themselves pro-life, they're not. They're pro-ly. If they were pro-life, they'd support universal health care. They would work with us to get rid of all these horrible weapons of war, these semi-automatic weapons. They would work to protect the planet, the source of life of us all, and they would work to make sure that all children are wanted children, not forcing people to bring children into an already crowded world.

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