Ball & Chain Claims Harassment Case Delayed by Carollo's "Bizarre and Dissembling" Rants

Little Havana businesses Ball & Chain and Taquerias el Mexicano claim it was nearly impossible to yank a straight answer out of Miami city commissioner Joe Carollo during a marathon seven-hour deposition session last month.

The Calle Ocho restaurants say Carollo used a conspicuously extended bathroom break, "bizarre and dissembling narratives," and evasive responses to run out the clock during the deposition, which was taken in a lawsuit against the City of Miami over Carollo's alleged years-long harassment of the restaurants.

The ordeal wasted time and resources for the 15 people at the deposition, the plaintiffs claim. They're asking the Miami court to order the commissioner to sit for an additional four hours of questioning and sanction him to pay the plaintiffs' costs including legal fees for the "deposition misconduct."

"In short, Carollo is a critical witness with first-hand knowledge of most of the key facts in spanning a half-decade of city malfeasance," a motion to re-depose Carollo argues. "That alone...necessitates additional deposition time."

Carollo's attorneys bit back by arguing that the restaurants are trying to intimidate Carollo in an attempt to gain leverage against him in the litigation.

"There is absolutely no basis for sanctions," Carollo's response reads. "If it was as outrageous as the plaintiffs' motion claims, surely the special master [who oversaw the deposition] would have intervened given that she had broad authority."

In the lawsuit, Taquerias and Ball and Chain, a storied jazz and salsa club, allege the city, as instructed by Carollo, illegally targeted them and tried to "run them out of town." They claim it was all part of a five-year campaign of retaliation against restaurant owner Bill Fuller for endorsing Carollo's political opponent in 2017, among other activity that purportedly peeved Carollo.

The complaint describes the passage of ordinances, persistent police raids, and unnecessary code-enforcement inspections at Taquerias el Mexicano and Ball & Chain, which resulted in the closure of both businesses and the revocation of their certificates of use. While Ball & Chain has reopened, Taquerias remains closed.

While the case at hand was filed against the city, Fuller and his business partner Martin Pinilla also have a 2018 federal civil rights lawsuit pending against Carollo individually.

The restaurants claim that during his long-awaited February 6 deposition, Carollo went to great lengths to avoid answering questions about his role at the center of the harassment.

For ten pages in the deposition transcript, which currently is sealed, Carollo refused to answer a "simple question," one that the plaintiffs' counsel had to ask 13 times, they say. The motion claims he evaded answering the question by absconding to an outside law office for a bathroom break.

"He declined to use the restroom next to the deposition room, and instead insisted on going with his counsel to another law office altogether," the motion states. "When he returned, he finally responded to the question mimicking his lawyer's legalese."

Carollo's counsel objected to 60 percent of the questioning, which accounted for more than 5 hours of the seven-hour deposition — and special master Jacqueline Hogan Scola overruled every objection, the restaurants claim.

After two hours of questioning, the plaintiffs' counsel had to ask Carollo's attorney for the third time "to please stop playing these games." The tense moment came after Carollo's attorney was supposedly "reminded of sandwiches" and requested a lunch break.

"Carollo's counsel ask[ed] for a lunch break during lengthy objections, prompting the witness to repeatedly 'forget' the question asked, thereby requiring that question be asked five times," the plaintiffs contend.

When Carollo's side wasn't objecting, he allegedly would respond with "rambling, non-responsive gibberish." After seven hours of the rigmarole, Carollo's counsel suddenly ended the deposition as the commissioner was mid-answer.

For their part, Carollo's attorneys argue that Ball & Chain and Taquerias el Mexicano squandered their time by asking open-ended questions and tackling irrelevant matters. They claim the restaurants' lawyers could have sped up Carollo's answers if they had provided documents to him in advance of the questioning.

"Plaintiffs’ motion should be denied because they are seeking additional hours in order to continue their apparent efforts to harass, threaten, and intimidate...the commissioner in a blatant effort to improperly gain leverage in these civil cases," Carollo's legal team argues.

Carollo's lawyers add that the motion for additional time should be denied because the plaintiffs agreed to limit the deposition to only seven hours and failed to ask for more questioning time from the special master.

The next hearing is scheduled for today, while the jury trial is set to begin on April 24.

According to public records obtained by New Times, the city has paid $111,000 in legal fees and related costs to the law firm of Buchanan Ingersoll for the pending litigation. All of the work for that bill is dated in July 2022 in the firm's invoices.

In August 2022, New Times found that in the separate civil rights case filed against Carollo individually, the City of Miami had paid legal bills on his behalf to the tune of more than $430,000.