The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - #BecauseMiami: Smushed That Cucaracha

Episode Date: June 9, 2023

Billy Corben's long awaited victory lap around the demise of Joe Carollo has arrived. We get into the large collection of people who have called for Carollo's resignation this week. We also talk to one of the victorious plaintiffs in the federal suit, Ball & Chain co-owner Bill Fuller. Plus, former Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado joins us to talk about his failure of a successor that is Francis Suarez. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to Giraffe King's Network. The jury found them lay aboard The verdict was returned The smushed up cookin' ratcha The pathetic equal turn Joey Ross was a bossing Hey, chickens come out of the worst Hey, color your skill team Yeah, he's going bankrupt

Yeah, corrupt, go man, get it done He's finally getting his Then, finally, walking from Alice It's finally getting his That tiny walking has been brought to just Three He's going bankrupt, yeah So what's gonna lose his shirt? Hey, and his penis doesn't work Hey, he's going bankrupt, yeah across the sea.

Visit time of celebration in Miami. Miamians have taken their pots and pans to 49th Street in Halea in Jubilation. It's true. Finally, finally, some semblance of justice, some accountability for Miami Commissioner Joe Corroyo. I see a Commissioner Koma Miyada himself the jury in the ongoing federal civil case for first amendment retaliation against him for weaponizing city agencies like police and fire and code enforcement to target these business owners a billfuler and Martin Penea Who own among other properties ball and chain one of the most famous unpopular bars and all of the little Havana, certainly in all of Miami. And we will talk to Bill Fuller later on the program.

Because they supported his political rival, he went full Fidel, he never go full Fidel. I wouldn't even recommend going light Fidel, let alone full Fidel. But he was found libeled by this jury and he was ordered to pay 63.5 million dollars in damages. An absolute devastating blow no pun intended. The jury did not buy his argument that everybody was lying in a vast communist conspiracy

against him. That was his defense. What do you want from me? That was his only defense. That everybody that three former police chiefs were lying on him, that his former chief of staff was lying on him, that his former receptionist was, I mean, it was a crazy bullshit defense. That's something that Trump would say. Yeah, I mean, it was, it was a Trumpian style.

And what's so funny is, too, is like, that guy's a scumbag and a liar. And you go like, but you hired him, dude. Like he was your chief of staff. Like, what are you saying? The problem with somebody like Joe Corillo, as in Trump, that he can't get real people to come and work for him, because they don't wanna destroy their own reputations by getting dirty by his corruption.

And so he gets these sort of fringe characters to come and work for him, and then invariably when there's a falling out, and they turn on him, he gets to say, oh, they're compromise, like, but you hired them. And like you deliberately kind of hired these compromise people so that later you can try to discredit them, but like they're telling the truth and the jury believe them. I mean, this jury heard endless testimony and ridiculous amounts

of evidence. And now Joe has to pay 63 and a half million dollars, not exactly sure how that's gonna happen. And apparently couldn't beat the rap on this case. And the case is gone. There's another case that's probably gonna cost the city another 50 million dollars. This case has already cost taxpayers over four million million in counting in just attorneys fees. And now they have to figure out who if anyone is going to pay this $63.5

million judgment. And now here's the thing that Joe does. Roy Joe brings the community together. I mean, I'm talking about Cubans, Black people, White people, Republicans, Democrats, all came together at Miami City Hall this week to demand Joe's resignation, okay? And failing that, they have asked the governor to remove him from office, which the governor has done for politicians that have been charged with crimes, but also politicians that haven't been charged with crimes or elected officials, I should say, elected officers like the state attorney and Hillsborough County, Andrew Warren,

like the sheriff and Broward, Scott Israel, neither of them were charged with crimes, but the governor accused him of dereliction of duty effectively as judge jury execution or here in Joe Coroio's case, you have a judge Rodney Smith, a federal judge appointed by president Donald Trump, and you had a jury of his peers who listened to all the evidence and found that he violated the Constitution, which is a violation of course of his oath of office and the governor can remove him and a lot of different kind of people together here's Damien Pardo i'm here to tell you we can do better in the city of my army

we are currently spending millions of dollars defending his illegal actions and now were exposed to over a sixty million dollar verdict instead of using community resources for petty vendettas and ego-driven initiatives, the City of Miami deserves representation that cares about its people and the problems they struggle with on a daily basis. Today is a day for good people who are afraid to speak up, to speak up. And it's a day for city government to get back to basics and to serving its residents

and let's be clear what we're saying here in non-certain terms is that we want joker oil to resign or to be removed from public office now of course rate joker was not going to resign no This is a guy who once he gets a hold of power, he'd never let's go until he's forced out. That's what happened in the 80s and the 90s and the zeroes. Like, I think he's on his ninth life, you know, political life, but he's like a cancer that, you know, you think is in remission and disappears for a few years or 10 years,

and then he comes back to kill you. But I think this is going to be his last hurrah here. So the question remains, if he's not going to resign, what else was this group at City Hall this week asking for? And here's a friend of the show, Tomas Kennedy. Today, I want to call with my fellow residents under the Department of Justice, Attorney General Mary Garland. I knew as Attorney Marcensilla Point to convene a grand jury in the Southern District of Florida

to investigate this city government for a possible rico indictment or more. And before the city commission considers paying, dares to pay another penny of our tax dollars to defend Joe Carroyo for this $63.5 million judgment or any more money on defense attorneys in the second case involving ball and change that is still ongoing, they must retain independent counsel. They cannot take any further legal advice from City Attorney V

Camendez, who was an obvious conflict of interest in this case. She cannot serve as both a witness in the second case for which she has already been deposed and as an attorney. That is unethical and it's inappropriate. She should have recused herself, particularly after the terrible legal advice that she has provided throughout her tenure that has gotten this city in so much trouble. I also want to call on the governor, Rondes Santos, to take action here and immediately suspend Joe Carillo who has for the decades that he has been living off the tid of government has done nothing but again, use and abuse his public office for personal benefit. You know, Joe Corroyo broke his silence about this and went on to America Teve, which is

basically like state run television. It's effectively like Miami's grandma, like you know, like the Cuban Communist parties propaganda network. And Joe has a very incestuous financial relationship with them where they get like free content from some of his events And then they get paid ads on that and then they kick it back to Joe's wife Marjorie It's this whole incestuous cesspool of corruption. So they gave Joe like 30 minutes in prime time this week to speak his piece And of course it was deranged just red baiting piece. And of course, it was deranged just red baiting, race baiting, demagoguery, conspiracy theories, just the usual joke, or a bullshit. And one of the things he said is, doesn't

matter how much money you spend on my attorneys fees as taxpayers, the ROI is great. I brought so much money to this city that you should keep paying my attorney's fees to $3 million a year forever. Let's set that craziness aside for a second. He concluded by saying the city of Miami is lucky to have me as their commissioner. And Marvin Toppia, the chair of the Miami-Dade County Hispanic Affairs Advisory Board, also involved with Bionnes Coutulades and a co-owner of one of my favorite spots in Miami, Salty Donut, and now they're all over the country now. Marvin responded to Joe Correo saying the city's lucky to have him as a commissioner.

The job title's public servant, we decide it's our opinion if we're lucky to have him, which I believe I speak for everyone that we're not lucky to have him. But that just that statement says so much about him and how he runs his office. You don't speak for us. We speak for ourselves and you should be elevating that voice. You should be listening to what our needs and wants are and helping. There's a proof of the local business owners that don't feel that that representation or that support. And then we have further proof in in the court where he's used and weaponized his power.

It's very unfortunate. That's all I have. Here's a sampling of some of the other speakers who say that Miami is a banana republic and that Joe Corroyo is the Fidel Castro of Miami. And I dare to say, just like Fidel Castro like abusing his power no matter what, Karol you behave just like that in his position for years. I love Miami as most everyone here does. We have earned the reputation as a banana republic.

And right now I appeal. I appeal to everyone. We need a change in leadership. We need an independent council. We don't need the head and guarding the chicken coop. The people give you the authority to change their lives. And with that comes responsibility. Probably the hardest thing available that's possible for a man or a woman

to do is to admit to themselves and admit to themselves that they cannot do the job. But if you can't do your job as a public official elected, as an appointed manager of resources, the people's resources, or a spokesperson to interpret the laws of this nation and guide the city, which serves the people, then get out of the way. When you think about it, Roy, it's actually like a pretty sad day in Miami because Bill Fuller and Martin Pena are wealthy, successful real estate owners and businessmen and they spent millions of dollars. I mean, they filed this case in 2018.

They just had like a month-long trial. That cost bank and not forget everybody, virtually anybody else in this town can afford to get that kind of justice Because the state attorney Catherine Fernandez Rundle did nothing. She allowed this Cancer of corruption to metastasize in the city of Miami knowing full well exactly what was going on here with the Miami Mafia She worked at friends and family plan and did not pursue justice here and And here is former state senator Annette Tadeo making it clear that that's not how justice should be

in this town. It shouldn't take a millionaire to be able to go to court to get justice. But that's what has taken in the city of Miami. A millionaire who was unjustly targeted because of first amendment rights that we have in this country. But that's why we're here. All different people, different parties, different beliefs, different religions, everybody together

because we're demanding leadership of the city of Miami. We have none right now. There's a saying that people should not be afraid of their government. The government should be afraid of the people because power should be to the people. We're the ones who are supposed to vote, where the people are supposed to determine how, you know, what the government does, how they represent us, how they pursue policy, and too often now in government, certainly in the state of Florida, certainly in the city of Miami, does not do the will of the people. They do the will of themselves, of their benefactors, of special interests who finance,

not only their campaigns, but their lives. And there are still a lot of people, even now, when Joe was found to be responsible and guilty of this criminal, unconstitutional misconduct, there are still people who are afraid to come forward and to speak up because they know and they are scared of retaliation, not only from Joe Corroyo, but from this racketeering organization masquerading as a municipal government. That is the city of Miami.

We're here and it's a huge risk for local business owners, such as Sandwich and others that are not here because of the fear of retaliation, which he has already done in the past. And this is what he uses his city power to do. Unfortunately, he should be supporting and helping and representing these businesses and he does a complete opposite of that. So you all listen to me day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, tell you about how wild and backwards it is here in Miami. Talk about this corruption, but I want to be clear.

Corruption is not a victimless crime. It's not just like, okay, this guy got a bag full of cash, made some shit happen for somebody for a developer. Whoever I'm talking a developer, whoever. I'm talking about you, Mr. Mayor. We'll talk about that later. With a past, I think it's the first mayor we've ever had on this on this show. I believe so, yes.

First mayor's second politician. These are strange days, Roy. Politics makes for strange bedfellows. I'll tell you that. There is a human toll. There are people who are affected by this misconduct. Not just rich business owners, but small business owners, entrepreneurs, people who give up everything to try to make a go of it and build a business

and build a community. Because that's the thing about Kayaocho. It is a community, it is a culture, and it's not made up of politicians. It's made up of these businesses, of these restaurants, of these nightclubs, of musicians, of artists. It's an exciting, environment place that continues to thrive, not because of Joe Corroyo, but despite Joe Corroyo.

And so we're going to hear now from Daniel Figueroa, who is a co-owner, along with his wife, Rosa Romero, of sandwich day Miami spelled Sanguich, S-A-N-G-U-I-C-H, which is one of the best, if not the best, Cuban sandwich shops, not in Miami. I would venture to say in the world. And now, so successful, this small business, it is expanding to more locations. These folks were so brave to stand up and to tell their story and testify under oath in this lawsuit against Joe Corroyo. And I think Rosa Romero's testimony was so passionate and so compelling.

I think it was her testimony that went a long way into convincing this jury to decide for the plaintiffs to the tune of $63.5 million. Here is her husband, Daniel, telling their extraordinary success story of not only entrepreneurialism, but survival against their own government who is trying to crush their dreams and take food from the mouths of their two newborn daughters. Starting a business as hard enough as it is, the last thing anyone could think of when setting on this journey is getting into a tussle with an elected official. Well that's exactly what happened to Rosa and me.

We were being tripped on purpose just as we were learning to walk. Rosa and I set out to leave our careers to start a business together. We wanted to start a business that we could be proud of, a business that our community would support. And so with a dream, our academic training, and two newborns in tow, we took a leap of faith. We charted our course and launched Sandwich in Little Havana in 2017. Little did we know after opening our doors to gleaming reviews in the community and the community rallying behind us, Joe stepped in and wasted no time to crush our dreams. Just imagine that the day that he was elected he

made it its mission to shut us down. We instantly became his political pawn all because he took he had a bone to pick with our landlord Bill Fuller and Martin Panilla. Joe Corroyo personally requested that the police, the fire department, code enforcement, take all measures to shut down our thriving business. We were harassed and intimidated for months. Despite our earnest efforts to work with him and his team, our permits were revoked, doors were closed,

and we became outlaws. Jolkoroil robbed us of our time, our dreams, and financially destroyed us. For the first time in our lives, Rosen and I were forced to apply for food stamps and government aid. Once too successful professionals were on the verge of bankruptcy. And you have to understand, me being here exposes me, my family and my business to levels

beyond most people here in this room. We still function a business in Gaiucho. We have families to protect. But it's important that we stand eye to eye. And we reject the tyranny and speak out for the greater good. Hello, someone listen to me. I need help. I'm in Barcelona and the creatures are everywhere. Hola, alguien me escucha, necesito ayuda. Estoy en Barcelona y las criaturas están por todas partes. A la is blue, cada is. Escucheis lo que escuchéis, tapados los ojos.

La calle llevamos todos a cieras, pero lo más aterradores no saberen que confiar. Uy de las personas que os piden que mireis, si queréis seguir convido. Birdbox Barcelona estreno en Netflix el 14 de julio. Te atreves a ver. That was Bill Fuller, along with his real estate partner, Martin Panilla, celebrating on the courthouse steps in Fort Lauderdale last week. Their stunning victory against Miami City Commissioner Joe Corillo, who was found liable for violating their first amendment rights. And the jury awarded them $63.5 million dollars. Bill Fuller is joining us right now. Obviously, he looked very excited there rightfully so,

but after five years since you filed this suit, after 30 days of trial, about I think to my count, two dozen witnesses, how does it feel for you to finally get your proverbial day or in this case month in court? It feels amazing. I mean, he ultimately was, you know, he tried to avoid and evade that court date as much as possible, dragged this all the way to the Supreme Court over five years to determine

his immunity status, which he lost in the process. It just feels good. I mean, it doesn't settle all the scores with the City of Miami. They will are continuing to punish us. And there is a campaign against us, but at least with Joe Corroyo, we have been vindicated. What everybody has known publicly for years has been certified in a federal courthouse. And, you know, that, that part feels great. He's, he's a bad dude. Yeah, and I get the sense that this wasn't so much about the money as it was. Like you said, that vindication, the idea that like that six, you know, a jury of Joe Corrello's peers, six people sat and listened to all of the evidence,

all the testimony, which at times was quite boring. You know, took a lot, you know, took toothpicks under the eyelids to, to stay conscious during that, but they heard it all. And they said, yeah, you're right. You were wrong and this man was your tormentor. So that must be at least right, cathartic. Yeah. I mean, that, that part's amazing. I have to say that even as long as the jury process was, we, we only introduced about 50% of the evidence. It's just the amount of abuse that we received to the hands of Joe Corbin, the city over the years, it would take months in a jury trial.

So we really had to scale it back. We had to bring a highlight reel, even some of the best highlights we couldn't get in. But clearly that was more than enough. You know, we feel great about this. We feel great about the future cases and the city should be very concerned. And they're doing everything in their capacity

to stop us because they know that they're in the wrong. Let's talk about future cases. Before I ask you about the $63.5 million judgment in this one, but future cases, there is no doubt that the city is liable. You are suing the city for in excess of $26, $27, $28 million and counting, of course, because their damages are accruing every day the city keeps your businesses closed down. I mean, the city could be on the hook, I don't know, for as much as 50 million dollars that is taxpayer money when all is said and done. Judging on the outcome of this case, how confident or should the city be in the competence of its, you know, of its city attorney, of its counsel to proceed with this case?

And is there any hope for settlement before you bankrupt the city bill? Well, we're, yeah, right. I mean, we're, look, we're never going to get settlement because you have a city attorney that's protecting somebody that's doing the wrong thing. And so they are cohabitating together. They're both very corrupt. And, you know, that protection is going to last as long until they're all brought down ultimately.

So we're gonna keep pushing. We believe that the laws on our side, we believe that each and every jury that we come in front of is gonna see the truth. They're gonna see it quickly. But in the meantime, what we have is a $1.3 billion organization that does not respond to shareholders, does not respond to taxpayers, does not respond to taxpayers,

is only being run by just a few individuals that are corrupt, and they're gonna do whatever they want for as long as possible to keep the truth from being shown to everybody. And that's what we have at stake here. Even now they're gonna appeal this, which we understood they're gonna do, but it's a sad case.

What we should have is the City of Miami recognizing that a federal court found that a city commissioner was coming after business owners. What we should have received is apologies from the officials. We should from the mayor, from other city commissioners, and from the city manager. But that, of course, is not happening because of the fact that they're complicit and have turned a blind eye to this abuse over all of these years. And so it just speaks to how ridiculous the city of Miami is as an organization. It's entirety. I want to follow up on that because anybody paying a monochrome of attention to the evidence

and to the testimony and the trial, of which you said only 50% of it, you even bothered to present to get a $63.5 million verdict against show, Karelo for violating your first amendment rights. But what we learned from this is that Joe Karelo did not act alone. There were people in the city elected and not elected who were not simply enablers of Joe Correo, but were complicit. They were co-conspirators. It wasn't just they were complicit cowards who allowed him to do this. They were active co-conspirators in both him weaponizing the city agencies, police, fire

code, etc. against you, but also to cover that up later when they, when they needed to come up with various schemes to try to subvert your efforts at accountability and transparency. So my question is I want you to name names right now. What does the evidence show? Who I should say? Does the evidence show is responsible as complicit? And what I believe should probably be a recon investigation by a federal grand jury in the Southern District of Florida,

but that's a conversation for another time. Who is responsible, who else is responsible on the city? Who else has blood on their hands here for violating, violating not only your constitutional rights to First Amendment, but your private property rights. That's the other thing too. This is America and they deprived you of your ability to use your private property, open your business,

and generate income in this capital, allegedly capitalist democracy. So name names, who else at the city? user private property, open your business and generate income in this capital allegedly capitalist democracy. So name names, who else at the city? Well, for me, the greatest culprit, aside from Joe Corroyo, is the city attorney, Victoria Mendez, because Joe thought he got very cute a few years ago when he started to direct all of his transgressions through the city attorney under this veil of like, you know, that's my attorney client privilege. And so, yeah, she's a mob lawyer. She's a

consiglier. She's Tom Hagen. That's exactly right. And now we know, you know, now she has her own problems. And ultimately, he's covering for her. So, it's like, it's like, it's like it's a mutually assured destruction here, right? They've all got dirt on each other, like, like a mob, like a mafia. Yeah, it's exactly right. That, you know, everybody's needs to cover each other. If one comes down, the other one comes down with them and vice versa, nobody knows which one's going to come down first. And she has a, a couple of, of subordinates directly in the city, attorney's office that have been instrumental in seeking legal action against our businesses, our properties, taking us through court, making direct communications with subordinates in

all aspects of the city of Miami department. So now you have attorneys that are reaching out to building, zoning, code, and you know, when you have your attorney from the city now reaching out to those departments and to individuals that don't really deal with attorneys on a data basis, what do you think they're gonna do? They're gonna do exactly what is being requested. So all Joe has to do is pick up the phone, call Vic, she relates it to one of her subordinates

or subordinates reach out to individual departments and it's done. The Joe Corroyo Target and retaliation mechanism is in full working mode there. Then you have the city manager Art Noriega that is also complicit in it because he knows exactly what's going on. And you know, look, his jobs at stake and everybody's jobs at stake. At the end of the day, if you know, Joe will demote you or terminate you if you don't do his bidding and he will promote you and elevate you into the highest areas of the city if you do do his bidding.

And that's what we've seen over and over again. Bill, I want to put a human face on this. Obviously, you're a successful guy and I'm not suggesting you did not suffer here. Obviously, as a result of being deprived of your private property rights and the lost income, of course, from being able to have your businesses open. But you employ a lot of people in a town that is the one of the least, if not the least affordable housing market in the entire country, you have employees who work not paycheck to paycheck, but tip jar to tip jar. Talk about the lives that

have been impacted because corruption is not a victimless crime. Talk about the lives in this city that have been impacted by the corruption and by the unconstitutional misconduct of this city government. Billy, by the corruption and by the unconstitutional misconduct of this city government. Billy, that's really one of the most devastating things of the whole thing. They don't care about the collateral damage that they create, whether it's for our businesses,

our employees, or for other businesses that have been impacted by the legislation that they do to target us. But with regards to us, we have examples, for example, in our Mexican restaurant, Takadías, Mejicano. We had employees there for over 30 years. When we bought that business, it was a legacy business, and we inherited those employees.

And when they closed that business, many of those employees were gone. We tried to transition to other hospitality venues that we had to the best that we could. But for those we couldn't, it was devastating. When ball and chain closed, after we had done all the permits it asked and then they pulled our CU, we had over 120 employees that were unemployed.

Again, we can only keep the very top management through that transition. And those are families. Those are families not being fed. That's what those, that's what that, I mean, in some cases, we have the mother and father working at the venues. And so yeah, that's what that. I mean, in some cases, we have the mother and father working at the venues. And so yeah, it's families.

There's just total disregard for that. You had an employee if I'm not mistaken, a talkerist who was falsely arrested just because he showed up to work one day. Okay. No, could you imagine that that story never came out in trial? Okay. Wow. That is one of the most devastating stories.

I was called to talk to you as one night. We had a manager. He said, Hey, Bill, the police is shutting us down upstairs tonight. While I'm on my way to the venue, he calls me and says, you're not going to believe this. They're arresting me. When I got there, I spoke to the officer in charge. I spoke to the code enforcement officer. I asked the code enforcement officer, is there a violation tonight? He said, absolutely not. And so I said to the police officer, what is this about? He goes, look, I can close your venue, whatever I want. It's my discretion. What we later found out in discovery did not come out in the court, but you will hear

another court hearings is that we found that this police officer had premeditated that arrest. We found emails that he sent himself 10 hours before on that very same day, saying tonight, I arrested the manager at talk. He is and I closed the venue down. Welcome to the banana republic. I have one last question before I let you go 63 and a half million dollars. This guy's got a net worth of, I don't know, $100,000. He has a house that's worth a little something. He makes about $55,000 a year from his commission salary's worth a little something. He makes about $55,000

a year from his commission salary. How do you intend to collect or what do you intend to collect here? We absolutely do not want the city taxpayers to pay $1. That would be an injustice to what we fought all the way to the Supreme Court for. It's Joe Kory who's liable. If we have to take the last 50 cents out of his back pocket, we will. That will give us great satisfaction. That's what we're going to pursue. We're going to pursue every asset under the sun. I wouldn't be surprised that even when we start looking at his bank accounts, that we're going to find in discretion. But let's see how that plays out. Well, I bad news for you, Bill. In God, we trust it is that God that's been protecting

me or Or not. Bill Fuller, look forward to celebrating with you at Ballin Chain. I mean, these are the businesses that make kayocho, kayocho. People don't go to kayocho to see Joe Caroyo. They go for Ballin Chain, for Sanguishede Miami, for Azúcar, for these are the reasons why. This is the culture of this community and of the street. And it will be there long after Joe Corroyo.

Bill Fuller, congratulations. Thanks guys. Love the show, you guys do great work. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Last week, there were two South Florida mayors who were arrested in a 24 hour period. Anthony Filippo, the mayor of North Miami Beach, a city with beach in its name and no beach in its border.

He was arrested and charged by the Miami Dade State Attorney with three counts of voting misconduct for allegedly failing to update his address before voting three times in the 2022 primary general and then run off in NMB. The second mayor was the former mayor of plantation. Her name is Lynn Stoner. She was arrested on charges of official misconduct, falsification of records,

and trying to influence a building official in order to help a developer get some permitting done or some loan for a development in the city of plantation who hasn't been arrested yet is my me mayor Francis Suarez aka president Ponzi postalita. Oh, I almost how'd you know do you see me make that quick? I was you can tell because I slowed down right? I got the injury. Oh, I almost how'd you know? Do you see me make that quick? I'm like, I got so hot. Yeah, I know it's, I was, you can tell it's I slowed down, right?

I suddenly slowed down a ramp up. I actually had to look at this model of the thing here. Like, what was it look like? Oh, no, there it is. I'm not that quick anymore. I've lost the step for two in my, in my old age, Roy. But Ponzi Bostalita has got some problems though. We talked about this a couple weeks ago on the program.

And now the MiamiHerald has come out with some bum shell follow-up articles that have revealed that Francis Suarez was on the payroll of a local developer who was trying to push through a project at the city of Miami, but it got delayed. There was some issues with a very convoluted and expensive zoning issue.

What they did was to overcome this is they secretly hired the mayor and started wiring him $10,000 a month. And the CFO of this company, Urban Coconut Grove, that's the name of the development, the developer is Rishi Kapoor. The CFO was like, why the hell are we sending $10,000 every month to Mayer? We couldn't find a contract. It was some unknown reason. And then he found out from internal documents that were presented to investors who started

getting nervous because they're losing money on this project that's not moving forward. That's delayed at the city. Rishi Kapoor said, tranquilo, we've got the mayor working to help us overcome this zoning issue. When asked about this, the mayor said, no, no, no, no, to the Miami Herald. No, you're a bunch of communists. This is a conspiracy against me. You're trying to smear my good name.

I was brought in to bring investors to this project, which is total bullshit because you don't get paid to bring an investor. So if you bring an investor, you might get a big, you might get a finder's fee, you might get a commission. Nobody gets $10,000 a month. By the way, the total was $170,000 he got paid. Here's the thing, that zoning issue, Roy, it disappeared. It went away.

Now, the herald knew that. The herald knew he got $170,000 the mayor, and they knew the zoning issue went away, but what they didn't know is what happened in between, right? Did the mayor do anything for that money? It turns out that the mayor interceded. The mayor had someone from his office, Lossero Cantaro, his director of constituent affairs to reach out to Dan Goldberg, who is the city of Miami zoning director, to help convince

him to make this problem go away? Goldberg had repeatedly rejected this special Variance that they wanted this special privilege Repeatedly rejected it over months and now the mayor's office was calling and what happened? It went away. So they bridged the gap. What happened here is the mayor got paid over here He had his office intervene on behalf of this developer who was secretly paying him. And then the zoning issue went away

after the mayor's office intervened. Did these people like not leave in paper trails or like this guy, we see sort of record of this, you know, money to his hands? I think so much of bribery has been made legal by way of campaign finance laws, by way of the Supreme Court, where effectively you can do this and feel empowered to get away with it. And where is the state attorney?

Well, she finally announced that she along with the mimie date ethics commission will be investigating frances warris over this matter here's the thing though this isn't the only guy really i hope you're sitting down on a shock you but like this can't be the only developer when frances warris was out

working as the unregistered lobbyist for Jorge Moss and team beckham on the Mel Reese land grab. I said, this guy looks like he's working not for the city of Miami, but for Jorge Moss. We just learned today Jorge Moss has donated a half a million dollars to Francis Suarez his political committee. That is on top of all of the campaign contributions he has made in the past and all of the most tech campaign contributions he has bundled

for mayor france as well so when i say that france as well as is not work for his constituency works for his clients and he exploits is public position for private profit i mean it i'm not being hyperbolic or facetious congratulations to the mimey for getting a lot of messy by the way is there a better town than m to secure a man named Messi to come to? I mean, honestly, but I will say this.

It's a great news week for both soccer fans and fans of Mike Ryan who continues to prove to be the best Miami sports reporter in town. I mean, he gets it first and he gets it right. Shout out to Mike Ryan. And who better to talk about the state of the city of Miami? Tomas Regalato, who served from 2009 to 2017. Mr. Mayor, thank you for joining us. You're welcome, man.

Mr. Mayor, I know a lot of people talk about politicians being on the payroll of developers and special interests. Here we have a case where the mayor of Miami, the current mayor of Miami, is literally on the payroll of developers. I know you've been following these bombshell Miami-herald stories over the past week or so. Have they connected the dots here? I mean, it sounds to me like this sounds like almost like a bribe

no well uh... billiard will tell you that for the my army here all better late than never because they have built they have built francy swarrow such a national leader decrypto wonder boy many many years. Francis is on his second term and I think that after the first year that he took office, he saw what the City Commission was trying to do is govern without him and he decided to leave the day.

And he never came back. He has not been at any city hall commission meetings for about two or three years. He's been an absent mayor and he has taken several jobs that require time. But he, an spectacular fundraiser, he is a great marketing person for himself. He has been able to make a lot of money. I think that the commission of the city of Miami is at fault because never, ever, they have question about the mayor or anybody who could answer how many jobs he has, what kind of clients they have, you know, it took the Miami-Herald sometime to find out the one of the end it's also uh... a person that is doing business and asking favors

because these are favors what they want to do in the city of my army so yes you know if if you've got to describe the city of my army today billy uh... i would say it's a dumpster fire yeah mister mayer i hope you're right i hope it is uh... better late than ever from Miami today, Billy, I would say it's a dumpster fire. Yeah, Mr. Mayor, I hope you're right.

I hope it is a better late than never from the Harold and not too little, too late from the Harold. I agree that they have handled and covered this guy with an absurd level of credulity, just believing and buying into and perpetuating his bullshit and treating him ultimately just like the fail son, Nepo baby of his dad the former mayor as opposed to his own you know his own man is own corrupt man in my opinion and and all of a k

but you know that the question the question is what what happened with the iami coin which it would he raise all property taxes for residents of the city of my army you you made the point in your correct that that frances were as has been running away from the city of my me is not been president city commission meetings with the exception perhaps some proclamations are handing out some keys to the city but he does have items on the agenda that he sponsors where he's looking for special privileges for individuals or entities or organizations

for whom he wants no bid contracts or he wants to have, for example, waivers of permits or things like that. I would say, and I don't know if you would agree that the city commission has to put their foot down and say, we're not going to vote or move these things forward until the mayor comes here to city hall. And he proclaims not just verbally to the commission and to the public that he has no business

or financial interest that he's not being paid by end of the entities involved in these items, but that he signs under the penalty of perjury and affidavit to that effect so that there is some accountability on each and every i had item that he is trying to push through he basically as far as i'm concerned doesn't get the benefit of the doubt he needs to prove that he's not a you know a secret unregistered lobbyist for every single one of these folks know well that would be the perfect world and that will be something that would be done

in a regular city. We are not a regular city. And you're right. I think the commission has a whole hat fail in the last years to question the mayor. What are your thoughts on the latest scandal we're talking about what what are we forty three years or something forty four years into into the joker rollo rain of terror in the city of my any what are your thoughts on the sixty three

and a half million dollar uh... federal court judgment against him for violating the first amendment rights and private property rights for that matter of business people in little hudana. I was kind of, you know, not surprised, but taking it back something that the commission has said on the radio, I think yesterday or the day before yesterday, is that in the appeal this all would be overturned because in the jury there were no Cubans The attorneys for Caroleo agreed on those jurors as well as the attorneys from Mr. Fouler

And now is the thing about human against Afroamerican. It's an argument that is a non-issue. But I do think that the people have the right to know who's going to pay for that. Do we know the city is already on the hook not only for the four millions of, five millions of New York, Caroyo's or Defense, but also who's going to pay fuller the five million because he won the case. And usually when you won the case, the appellant have to pay the legal fees. In this case, it would be kind of you. So the other thing is that I have never ever seen a case like this. I seen cases where the city has paid for the legal fees of either elected officials or the members of the administration. Always the City Commission will place a ceiling to the City Attorney and said,

Madam City Attorney or Mr. City Attorney and I can tell you this because I was there. I was there for 12 years sitting as a commissioner and then like mayor. You cannot go over $250 per hour. You have to negotiate. If you spend more than half a million dollars, you have to come back to the city commission. Sure. Nothing.

I mean, she's a spend and we don't even know how much and has a spend and who's gonna pay for the $63 million. We don't know that because the commissioners don't want to discuss publicly. They may be talking privately, but they don't want to discuss publicly. What is going on in the mind of the city attorney of the city? Well, the city attorney who has a blank check apparently. Mr. Mayor, last question. It's been about six years since you left office relatively peaceful and tranquil time. The time of a peace and prosperity and tranquility when you're in office. They were more innocent days.

I guess there's a feeling now that you know, whether it's affordable and workforce housing, the you know, initiating anything with the $400 million Miami forever bond. It feels like initiating anything with the $400 million Miami forever bond. It feels like nothing has happened, or if it feels like Miami has moved backwards as a city in many ways, despite the publicity. The New York Times finally mentioned last week that like in fact, as many people are excited to move to Miami, everybody's trying to get the hell out

of city hall because it's so backwards and corrupt and toxic. So what do you say? As a city of Miami moved backwards over the last six years with Francis Suarez's mayor, Joe Corroyo, Alex Diaz Laportea at all on the city commission. I think that we have gone back to the 80s with, uh, until the 90s when people drop bananas at the door step of the city hall. Yeah, my administration was boring. A lot of people made fun of me because I was the pot hall mayor. But you know what, we went forward and we took the city during the economic crisis of the bubble with only $20 million in reserve and we left

France and Sweden $140 million in reserve and $400 million in bonds of which $300 million have not been used. So it's been six years and yes it's like a time machine. The city is like like a time machine is going it's going back and back and back. But you know even if they don't do nothing and just have fun going to parties and all that. But the issue is that they have done wrong. As a whole, the government for the residents of the city of Miami. I am a resident. I pay property taxes. I pay sales taxes. I pay gas taxes because I do everything in the city of Miami. What you pay for is millions of dollars in joker ojos legal defense. That's what a fees is what you pay for mayor tomorrow.

I'm helping pay his defense and yet he's still don't like me. Mayor Tomas Regolato catch him Sunday nights on mega TV. Thanks so much for being here on because Miami. You're welcome. Thank you. For our Miami moment this week, you know, Roy, 33 years ago, this week, there was another case at the Fort Lauderdale federal courthouse, you know, where this, the, the Joe Correo case just took place. And it was against two live crew and my favorite uncle, Uncle Luke, and

a judge, a federal judge found that their album, Nasty, as we want to be, was obscene and therefore illegal to sell. Days after that, two-life crew was arrested in Broward for performing songs off that album and at the same time, a record store owner by the appropriately named Charles Freeman was arrested in an undercover sting operation put on by Broward Sheriff Nick Navarro where they sent a guy in to buy the record, the two-life crew record, and then arrested the record store owner for selling it to him. So as much as there has been a fire hose of Florida for free lately, if

you think about how backwards that is, that that happened in the United States of America, and most remarkably, Charles Freeman, who was later incidentally arrested and charged with cocaine, trafficking. And I think he pled guilty because Miami, Charles Freeman is actually the smartest guy in this news package of his arrest because of course it wasn't enough for them to just arrest the guy. They had to bring the TV cameras along with them. There's a reason why Nick Navarro helped start cops in Broward County, the notorious TV

show. We hear from Charles Freeman, the record store owner, who is the only guy in this Miami moment that makes any sense. Go heat, go cats, cocaine. Miami is messy. Bell's Freeman knew he was breaking the law when he sold this album. Nasty as they want to be to a customer this morning.

Why am I buying the tape? But, well, I don't know. Because he was an undercover cop, and just like a drug bust, moments after the sale went down, several Howard Sheriff deputies rushed into EC records in Northwest Fort Lauderdale and arrested its owner.

America is free, free for everybody. And as long as that, this is America, I'm not living in Cuba, I feel my rights are valid. This is the only album banned in Howard despite that Freeman continued selling the records and tapes and challenged Sheriff Nick Navarro to arrest him for it. I saw him on television saying I would be selling it and I'm selling it and I will continue to sell it. In spite of a decision by the state and federal courts, we are here to arrest him because there is no one above the law.

This will obviously be a test case, it being the first time in Broward County that anyone is arrested for selling the album nasty as they want to be. The American Civil Liberties Union has offered free legal counsel for Freeman who was charged for selling obscene materials, a second degree misdemeanor. In a landmark, free expression case by the US Supreme Court, they said, one man's vulgarity is another man's lyric. Well, today in South Florida, the new expression should be, one man's lyric is another man's ticket to the big house. Freeman was booked at the Broward County Jail, his bond said at $100. new expression should be one man's lyric is another man's ticket to the big house. Freeman was booked at the Broward County jail. His bond said it $100.

This is stupid. And in a court of law with a jury, I doubt if they'll win this year case. So eventually the Supreme Court probably will overturn that decision. They'll all be dropped. Freeman promises this isn't the end of his fight with the law in Fort Lauderdale, Cindy Penya, Channel 10, eyewitness news. and promises this isn't the end of his fight with the law. In Fort Lauderdale, Cindy Peña, Channel 10, I witness news.