Pizzi going after Medley next

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Michael Pizzi wins Round 1 vs Miami Lakes for legal cost

Miami Lakes Mayor Michael Pizzi is having a tremendous run of luck in the courts.

First, he was acquitted of federal bribery charges after beingtalkingpizzi caught in an FBI sting applying for grants he allegedly knew were bogus. Then he got the court to agree with him on having Gov. Rick Scott lift his suspension from office. Then, he won a court battle to be reinstated as mayor of the small Northwest municipality of 30,800.

Last week, a Circuit Court judge denied the town’s motion to dismiss Pizzi’s lawsuit for recovery of legal fees — in his civil case. The city has 10 days to respond with other motions on why they aren’t liable.

Michael “Muscles” Pizzi has sued the town of Miami Lakes for around $3.2 million — $700,000 in the civil case and $2.5 million in the criminal case, in which he availed himself of no fewer than seven attorneys.

Read related story: Michael Pizzi sues Miami Lakes for $3.2 million in legal fees

Town leaders are fighting it on two fronts: As they battle in court against paying anything they are also still going after the municipality’s insurance provider, which has already denied both claims for different reasons. For the federal bribery case, they don’t cover criminal legal costs. And for the civil case, they can’t cover it if both parties are the insured. Both Muscles and former Mayor Wayne Slaton — who voters chose in a special election after Pizzi’s August 2013 arrest and who fought the return of his nemesis — are covered by the same insurance company.

The criminal legal fees case is awaiting to be reassigned after Miami-Dade Circuit Judge John Schlesinger recused himself because of his relationship with Pizzi. But Miami Lakes Town Attorney Raul Gastesi said the city is going to fight that case, too. First because they seem ridiculously high and arbitrary (read: artificially inflated) and two because part of the case had nothing to do with Mayor Pizzi’s duties in Miami Lakes.

When Pizzi was arrested, he was charged with misconduct and bribery because he had supposedly smilingpizzitaken money — including a couple thousand left in a bathroom at a pool hall and $3,000 handed to him by a lobbyist wearing a wire in his office closet — to secure grant applications from Miami Lakes and Medley, where he was the town attorney at the time.

“Why should we pay for what is alleged to be criminal conduct in another city, another position,” Gastesi asks, adding that the bills reviewed so far do not add up. “In some cases, the bills aren’t clear. We are looking to see how they came up with these numbers,” Gastesi told Political Cortadito.

“The sums that are being sought in the criminal case, we believe, are way beyond reasonable… we’re going to take depositions to find out what actually is going on here,” Gastesi said.

Well, one thing might be the fact that everybody and his mother is getting paid. From the original seven on the criminal case, he now has two more on his legal dream team for a total of nine members Clay Reiner, David Reiner, Monica Tirado, Benedict P. Kuehne, Edward Shohat, Michael T. Davis, Ralf Rodriguez, Kent Harrison Robbins, and Mark Herron.

Read related story: Michael Pizzi and his legal dream time — at what cost to who?

The town has retained one attorney, Onier Llopis, as outside counsel on both civil cases.

Pizzi did not return calls and an email to request comment. But his many lawyers, in a statemnt, called Wednesday’s ruling by Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Jorge E. Cueto a “significant rebuke” to the town’s motion to dismiss efforts to recover “legal fees he incurred in the Town’s ill-fated and unsuccessful effort to prevent his resumption to the Office of Mayor once he was unanimously acquitted of all federal charges.”

“Using strong language to defeat the Town’s objection to Mayor Pizzi’s legal entitlement to recovery of fees and costs, Circuit Judge Cueto reminded the Town that Mayor Pizzi “had to institute these suits to ‘defend’ his right to be mayor purposeful (and ultimately futile) obstruction,” said the statement from attorney Ben Kuehne, the lead lawyer on Pizzi’s million dollar dream team, who has a penchant for the drama.

Clay Reiner, a spokesman for the legal team that includes David Reiner, said they were confident that Pizzi will recover all the fees and costs incurred by the town’s “intransigence and insistence on the poor legal advice,” we’re guessing from Gastesi.

“The town has wasted enough of the taxpayer’s money filing frivolous and unsuccessful objections to Mayor Pizzi’s legitimate, constitutionally guaranteed reimbursement claim. The town should cease and desist this reckless abandonment of its legal responsibility,” Reiner said in the statement.

Pizzi, too, released a written statement: “In light of this ruling, it is my profound hope that my adversaries on the town council finally stop fighting the inevitable result of this case, and stop wasting taxpayer dollars by opposing this legitimate claim.”

Meanwhile, the meter keeps running on the legal fees.

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Miami-Dade Circuit Court dismissed a lawsuit filed by former Miami Lakes mayor Michael Pizzi against the town, who’s seeking attorney’s fees from his criminal trial on federal public corruption charges in 2014.

The court made its ruling on October 13.

It’s the second time the lawsuit was thrown out but, once again, Pizzi has 20 days to amend his litigation albeit the court further ruled that the former mayor would not be entitled to seek more court fees in his lawsuit against Miami Lakes.

Pizzi reportedly is seeking about $3 million in court fees from his criminal case, in which a jury acquitted him of all seven charges.

According to the court’s decision, which was released by Miami Lakes last week, its ruling was based on Pizzi’s federal indictment which doesn’t support an inference that he acted for a public purpose after Pizzi allegedly accepted bribes from two FBI undercover agents posing as sleazy businessmen who were seeking town contracts in exchange for money.

The fake company, which was called Sunshine Universal, was used by federal agents to see which government officials and lobbyists would take the bait to crack down on corruption.

The scheme included preparing a poor quality report and would use the bulk of the grant money to enrich anyone who participated in the bribery scheme.

According to the indictment, federal prosecutors alleged that Pizzi influenced the defendant’s legislative process such as the rest of the Miami Lakes Town Council that would pass legislation authoring the shadow corporation’s efforts to obtain federal grant money; receive financial rewards for assisting the shadow corporation’s efforts to obtain federal grant money; concealed information from the defendant regarding contributions to his reelection mayoral campaign; and falsified a campaign treasure’s report regarding contributions he received.

“Considering that the context out of which the alleged misconduct arose must also serve a public purpose, the Trial Court ruled the context alleged in the indictment does not support an inference that the former mayor acted for a public purpose,” the court said in its ruling.

Pizzi, who returned to office in 2015 following his acquittal but lost his reelection bid the following year, can file a third amended lawsuit for attorney’s fees from his criminal trial but not seek additional court costs in his case against the town.

“The ruling says he can no longer bring up that claim if he decided to amend the lawsuit,” said Town Attorney Raul Gastesi.

Gastesi said the town would proceed to seek sanctions for “egregious conduct” in the case if Pizzi filed a third amended lawsuit as a way to possibly stop the litigation once and for all.

He said the former mayor has appeared at several depositions but refused to answer questions and ignored several court orders to turn over tape recordings and other evidence that are crucial to Miami Lakes’ defense.

The court’s dismissal of the lawsuit is another victory for Miami Lakes, which has been fighting the former mayor’s litigation for more than two years.

Pizzi was seeking about $3 million in attorney’s fees and the town spent a lot of money fighting his lawsuit, and its own litigation against the insurance carrier for refusing to cover his legal bill.
The town settled Pizzi’s other lawsuit for about $400,000, when he sued Florida Governor Rick Scott and Miami Lakes that led to his return to political office.

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Miami Lakes Town Attorney Raul Gastesi has argued that the town and its taxpayers should not be responsible for the actions that Pizzi took, which were not taken for the benefit of the city — but rather the benefit of his campaign account — and were also done, in part, under his role as town attorney for Medley.