Miami, United States. – Miami Joe Carollo commissioner was acquitted of any criminal responsibility by the Broward County State Prosecutor’s Office, after a year investigation related to accusations of harassment against a businessman from Little Havana and threats to a former police chief. This was confirmed by a closing memorandum issued last Monday by Broward’s public corruption unit and cited by The new herald.
In the document, Julio González, director of said unit, concluded that the State “cannot prove beyond any reasonable doubt that Carollo’s actions constituted a criminal offense in regards to his treatment with Bill Fuller, owner of Ball & Chain, and Art Acevedoformer Miami Police Chief. ”
The investigation, which took place outside the Miami-Dade County due to potential conflicts of intereres, could now be sent to the city of Miami for a possible administrative inquiry, according to the Prosecutor’s Office itself.
The decision occurs in a context where Carollo remains a controversial figure. In 2023, he was convicted in a federal civil trial after a lawsuit filed by businessmen Bill Fuller and Martín Pinilla, who accused him of political reprisals. The jury failed in favor of the plaintiffs, granting them $ 63.5 million and concluded that the commissioner used police and municipal resources as a harassment tool after his support for the opponent of Carollo in the 2017 elections.
On the other hand, former Police Chief Art Acevedo maintains a lawsuit from 2022 against Carollo and two other commissioners, who accuses of violations of the first amendment and illegal reprisals after he denounced alleged acts of corruption and abuse of power in the Miami commission.
The resolution of the Prosecutor’s Office coincided this week with the celebration of a fund collection event organized by Miami First, the political committee linked to Carollo, in the face of a possible candidacy for mayor of Miami.
