| RIPTIDE | ▼ MIAMI COURT OF LAST RESORT I JOE CAROLLO ASKS U.S. SUPREME COURT TO REVERSE RULING IN BAR OWNER’S 2018 HARASSMENT LAWSUIT. BY ALEX DELUCA n October 2018, Ball & Chain owners Bill Fuller and Martin Pinilla filed a fed- eral lawsuit against City of Miami Com- missioner Joe Carollo in the latter’s personal capacity, alleging that he en- gaged in targeted harassment by stalking Fuller’s businesses and siccing code enforce- ment and city employees on them in retalia- tion after Fuller supported Carollo’s opponent in the 2017 run-off election for city commission. The lawsuit stalled in court for three years while Carollo’s attorneys attempted to have the case dismissed, arguing that their client was protected by qualified and legislative im- munity — the legal principles that protect po- lice and elected officials from being sued personally for actions on the job. But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit ruled against Carollo in February, clearing the way for a trial. As New Times previously reported, Carol- lo’s last hope would be to petition the U.S. Su- preme Court. In a petition filed on June 29, Carollo asked the high court to review the February ruling and provide clarity on the scope of leg- islative and qualified immunity “in order to free elected officials from the unwieldy de- mands of having to mount a defense for ac- tions that are compliant with public official duties and responsibilities.” The Supreme Court filing notes that a timely petition for a rehearing on the case had been denied in April. “The decision by the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals so narrowly construed and applied the legislative and qualified immu- GET MORE NEWS & COMMENTARY AT MIAMINEWTIMES.COM/NEWS ▼ MIAMI BEACH THE DEEP END I RAKONTUR TO CO-PRODUCE HULU DOC ON JERRY FALWELL JR. POOL BOY SCANDAL. BY ALEX DELUCA n August of 2020, a Miami Beach pool boy’s account of his seven-year sexual relationship with evangelical leader Jerry Falwell Jr. and Falwell’s wife, Becki, was shared in a bombshell Reuters report. The story rocked the religious right. Falwell resigned as president of the conservative Liberty University hours after the article appeared on- line, and a years-long battle ensued between the erstwhile pool boy and the Falwells, featuring accusations of predatory behavior and extortion. This past January, the Falwells finally spoke in detail about the scandal in a tell-all to Vanity Fair Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images Joe Carollo has brought his legal dispute with Ball & Chain owners Bill Fuller and Martin Pinilla to the highest court in the land. nity privileges as to effectively truncate and exclude from protection legislative conduct in furtherance of official duties,” Carollo claims in his petition (embedded at the end of this story). One of Carollo’s attorneys, Benedict Kue- hne, tells New Times via email that they filed the petition because the legal issue of legisla- tive immunity is “essential” in order to allow public officials to do their work without fear of being sued. “This lawsuit presents exactly that con- cern,” Kuehne, who is representing Carollo alongside attorney Thomas Scott, writes. “The question is one that calls for Supreme Court review and is in need of clarity.” Reached by phone for comment, Carollo inquired as to whether New Times was bank- rolled by Fuller and called the publication a “hit piece” paper before hanging up. Attorney Jeff Gutchess of AXS Law Group, who’s representing Fuller and Pinilla, sent New Times a written statement: “At least five federal judges have been in- volved in this case over the past four years, and they have all agreed that Commissioner Joe Carollo does not enjoy immunity to retal- iate against two local residents for exercising their core First Amendment rights, as alleged in our clients’ complaint. We do not expect Carollo to fare any better in the Supreme Court — which grants review in only the smallest fraction of cases — and hope that he will be encouraged to focus on improving the lives of his constituents rather than picking fights with them in their communities and battling them in court.” Fuller and Pinilla allege that Carollo was “THE QUESTION IS ONE THAT CALLS FOR SUPREME COURT REVIEW AND IS IN NEED OF CLARITY.” acting outside of his official duties when he vengefully directed city employees (over whom he has no ad- ministrative au- thority) to target their businesses Ball & Chain, a lounge and restau- rant; Union Beer Store, a craft beer bar; and Sanguich de Miami, an eatery that serves Cuban sandwiches. The appellate court agreed, find- ing that “Carollo exceeded the bounds of his legislative responsibilities by repeatedly ha- rassing” the plaintiffs’ businesses. In 2018, Fuller alleged in a complaint filed with the Miami-Dade County Commis- sion on Ethics & Public Trust that an em- ployee once spotted Carollo casing a valet parking lot from his car around 1:30 a.m. while accompanied by an unidentified woman who snapped photos. When the em- ployee recognized Carollo and confronted him, the commissioner allegedly responded by shouting, “I am the law!” (The complaint was later withdrawn.) According to the Supreme Court docket for Carollo’s case, a response to the commis- sioner’s petition is due by August 1. The 2018 lawsuit referenced should not be confused with a subsequent and separate fed- eral complaint against the City of Miami that Ball & Chain and another business owned by Fuller and partners Zack and Ben Bush filed in federal district court in September 2021. That suit alleges that the city’s targeted those busi- ness with unlawful raids and inspections by police, fire, legal, finance, and code-enforce- ment departments in an effort to close and de- stroy those businesses. The plaintiffs are seeking $27.9 million in damages from the city. journalist Gabriel Sherman. But while the Falwells have shared their side of the story, Giancarlo Granda, the Fontaineb- leau Miami Beach hotel pool boy, has yet to have his moment. Until now. As first reported by Variety, Granda will be at the center of an upcoming Hulu documentary co-produced by Miami natives Billy Corben and Alfred Spellman through their film production company Rakontur, alongside Oscar winner Adam McKay (co-writer of Anchorman, Talla- dega Nights, and The Other Guys) and Todd Schulman (producer of Who Is America with Sa- cha Baron Cohen). Corben will direct the project. Neither the title of the documentary nor its release date has been disclosed. Corben con- firmed the news of the documentary toNew Times but declined to share details about the WHILE THE FALWELLS HAVE SHARED THEIR SIDE OF THE STORY, GIANCARLO GRANDA HAS YET TO HAVE HIS MOMENT. project, other than to say the producers release more information in the coming weeks. Reuters’ Aram Roston reported that Granda said he was 20 when he first met the Falwells while working as a pool attendant at the Fon- tainebleau. He said that from 2012 to 2018 he’d meet the couple “multi- ple times per year” at hotels in Miami and New York, as well as at the Falwells’ home in Virginia, to have sex with Becki Falwell while her husband “looked on.” “Becki and I developed an intimate relation- ship and Jerry enjoyed watching from the corner of the room,” Granda told Reuters. Granda said the ménage à trois eventually fizzled, in part owing to an ugly business dispute involving a Miami Beach youth hostel. (A Politico reporter who spent a weekend there in 2017 deemed it a “flophouse” that welcomed a laun- dry list of behaviors that would likely get stu- dents expelled from Liberty University, the Christian school founded by Falwell’s father, noted televangelist Jerry Falwell Sr.). Last summer Rakontur released the six-part hit docuseries Cocaine Cowboys: The Kings of Miami on Netflix. The fourth entry in Rakontur’s Cocaine Cowboys franchise, the series drew heavily on Miami New Times’ coverage of the federal prosecution of notorious speedboat-rac- ing, drug-dealing partners-in-crime Willy Falcon and Sal Magluta, AKA Willy & Sal. [email protected] 33 miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com | CONTENTS | LETTERS | NEWS | NIGHT+DAY | CULTURE | CAFE | MUSIC | miaminewtimes.com | CONTENTS | LETTERS | RIPTIDE | METRO | NIGHT+DAY | STAGE | ART | FILM | CAFE | MUSIC | MIAMI NEW TIMES NEW TIMES MONTH XX–MONTH XX, 2008 JULY 21-27, 2022
