Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo should get to claim his Coconut Grove home as exempt from a $63.5 million court judgment against him, a federal magistrate judge said over the weekend.
In a court filing released Saturday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Lauren Louis sided with Carollo in his fight to have the property be considered his homestead, and thus exempt from being seized and auctioned off to satisfy the massive judgment.
Carollo was found liable in June of 2023 in a federal civil lawsuit brought by two businessmen who accused him of trying to destroy their businesses as political retaliation.
The jury found Carollo violated the plaintiffs’ First Amendment rights and awarded them more than $63 million.
Bill Fuller, the owner of the Ball and Chain restaurant and club in Little Havana, and fellow businessman Martin Pinilla claimed Carollo weaponized the city’s police and code enforcement departments to shut down several of their businesses in Little Havana because they supported his political …