Come and Get It! Joe Carollo Responds to $63 Million Judgment Seizure

Following a federal court order for the seizure of his property to satisfy a $63.5 million judgment, Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo tells New Times he is ready to turn over his personal belongings — old furniture and underpants included — should the U.S. Marshals show up at his door.

Last June, a jury in South Florida federal court handed down a multimillion-dollar verdict against Carollo in a lawsuit brought by Bill Fuller and Martin Pinilla, who accused Carollo of abusing his power as commissioner in a campaign to harass their businesses over a political vendetta.

Pinilla and Fuller, owner of the popular Little Havana lounge Ball & Chain, moved to garnish Carollo's city commission wages in November. A writ of execution recorded this week expands the collection effort by directing U.S. Marshals to seize the commissioner's cash, land, and personal property.

Carollo's most valuable asset might be his $2.5 million Coconut Grove home. The commissioner claims, however, that the house cannot be seized under a state homestead law that protects a Florida resident's primary home from most creditors.

"So what's left? They're going to take old furniture that already we reported to them six months ago. If they want, we'll gladly put it outside and give it to them. Let the marshals take it," Carollo tells New Times. "They're going to take from me all clothes, underwear, socks, pants, shirts, so that maybe they could hang it from the chandeliers at Ball & Chain. This is not about them satisfying the lien — because there's no money there."

In a recorded statement, Fuller and Pinilla's attorney, Jeff Gutchess, signaled that his clients will not shy away from going after Carollo's home — and trying to boot the commissioner from the property in the process.

"Because we believe his home is not homesteaded, as he had moved out to be a commissioner in Little Havana, we believe the U.S. Marshals Service should enter the house, change the locks, and evict him from the house," Gutchess said. "And then they will take all of his personal property and his home and other real estate property he owns and auction that. The proceeds will then be used to pay the judgment."

Gutchess was referring to how Carollo moved out of the Coconut Grove house to comply with residency requirements for his 2017 run for Little Havana's District 3 commission seat, which he still holds. Years later, he testified that he moved back into the six-bedroom house after a city redistricting (currently the subject of a racial gerrymandering lawsuit) placed the neighborhood back inside his district boundaries.

Fuller and Pinilla's move to commandeer Carollo's assets might be their best hope of making a dent in the nearly $64 million judgment.

Carollo's annual city commission wages of $58,000 — of which the plaintiffs can garnish 25 percent under federal law — will provide only a tiny fraction toward paying off the judgment. (As New Times once enumerated in dystopian detail, it would take more than 4,000 years of collecting that sum annually to pay off a $63.5 million debt.)

According to Carollo, his city salary is his primary source of income. He is asking for an exemption from the garnishment on the grounds he is head of household — an argument that Fuller and Pinilla claim is invalid given that he has no small children or other dependents. The commissioner's city wages are being set aside in escrow while the legal process plays out.

On January 10, the commissioner asked the court to hold off on the seizure so that his and his wife's jointly owned marital assets can be marked off and excluded.

"Should this Court permit the U.S. Marshals Service to invade the sanctity of the Carollos’ marital home prior to an inventory and determination of the nature of the personal property within the home, specifically, whether each piece of property is a marital asset held as tenants by the entirety, the Carollos will suffer irreparable harm," Carollo's motion says.

Fuller and Pinilla are apparently eyeing Carollo's wife's company as well in their collection efforts. They filed a subpoena for the company's documents not long after the trial wrapped up.

In June 2023, Fuller and Pinilla secured the $63.5 million judgment in their lawsuit claiming their civil rights were violated when Carollo ordered code enforcement and city employees to harangue them and their businesses in retaliation for supporting his opponent in the 2017 election. The lawsuit claimed Carollo stalked the parking lot of Ball & Chain and targeted Union Beer Store and Sanguich de Miami for code violations.

While he says he was surprised by the court order that could soon lead federal agents to file into his home, Carollo tells New Times he is not nervous about his financial future.

"At the end of the day, I know God will carry me through and protect me no matter what happens, but it's unpleasant," he says. "I feel more for my wife that this has taken a toll on her health."

To this day, he maintains the two businessmen committed the city code violations that are at the center of the lawsuit.

"This is the price of what an honest public servant has had to pay for protecting his constituents," Carollo claims. "They were being kept awake for years until late hours at night by loud music, by cars being parked illegally in residential areas, and nobody cared about it."

Gutchess tells New Times he's not surprised by Carollo's defiant tone months after the trial.

"He plays more to politics than he does to the court. That's probably why the trial went so bad for him. He was so overconfident," Gutchess says.

In his previous statement, Gutchess said federal agents' descent upon Carollo's property is imminent.

"The writ will now go to the U.S. Marshals Office along with a list of Mr. Carollo's assets, and the U.S. Marshals Office will execute on those assets. They will physically seize them including his boats, his cars, any personal items of value inside his home," Gutchess said.

Proceedings in the Miami gerrymandering case are looming, and the presiding federal judge is expected to reiterate his disapproval of the map that includes Carollo's house in District 3. If the judge strikes down the map, and the decision is upheld on appeal, Carollo could be confronted with an uncomfortable choice: either give up his District 3 seat by staying in the house, or move out and surrender the homestead claim he is trying to use to shield the property from seizure.