3 December 18-24, 2025 miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com NEW TIMES | CONTENTS | LETTERS | NEWS | NIGHT+DAY | CULTURE | CAFE | MUSIC | MONTH XX–MONTH XX, 2008 miaminewtimes.com MIAMI NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | FILM | ART | STAGE | NIGHT+DAY | METRO | RIPTIDE | LETTERS | CONTENTS | ▼ WYNWOOD WHO’S LAUGHING NOW? HANNIBAL BURESS SETTLES MIAMI POLICE LAWSUIT. BY ALEX DELUCA T he City of Miami will pay $200,000 to settle a lawsuit al- leging one of its police officers falsely arrested comedian Hanni- bal Buress in 2017 on a bogus dis- orderly intoxication charge. On December 11, several weeks after Bu- ress and the city’s attorneys decided to settle the 2020 case — in which Buress alleged that Miami Police Department (MPD) officer Luis Verne arrested him on a bogus charge after he mocked him during a night out in Wynwood in 2017 — city commissioners voted unani- mously to approve the settlement with the comedian. Buress is a stand-up comedian best known for his work on The Eric Andre Show and his acting role as Lincoln Rice on Broad City. His attorney didn’t respond to New Times’ re- quest for comment. On December 9, 2017, Buress was walking to his hotel from a Wynwood bar after a night of drinking with friends during Art Basel when he asked Verne if he could give the offi- cer $20 to call him an Uber ride to his hotel because his phone battery was dead. Verne declined. After a verbal exchange about women Buress had seen Verne flirting with, Verne ordered him off the street. Buress went into a bar seeking a charger or help, but Verne followed and again told him to leave for being “too drunk.” Outside, Verne activated his body camera, capturing the encounter that led to Buress’ arrest. Buress stepped in front of Verne and said into his body-worn camera: “Hey, what’s up?! It’s me, Hannibal Buress! This cop is stupid as fuck.” The cop, officer Luis Verne, cautioned Bu- ress to leave (and had reportedly done so sev- eral times previously), but as captured in body-worn camera footage later released by the police department, Buress continued talking into Verne’s camera: “Hey, what’s up, YouTube!” “All right,” Verne replied, “put your hands behind your back.” Verne arrested Buress for misdemeanor disorderly intoxication, a charge prosecutors would later drop. (Buress claimed that Verne arrested him because he was “just salty that he roasted his ass.”) In July 2020, three years after the inci- dent, Buress filed a federal lawsuit against the city, the police department, and two Miami police officers, Verne and Elio Villegas. Bu- ress alleged wrongful arrest and claimed that Villegas, who arrived after the arrest, failed to intervene. He contended that the “false” ar- rest caused him to lose gigs and suffer emo- tional distress. The federal lawsuit stalled for years in Florida’s Southern District Court as Villegas filed motions to dismiss the claims, stating that he didn’t know the arrest was unlawful and that his participation was covered by what is known as qualified immunity, the le- gal principle that shields cops from being sued personally for actions on the job. In June 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit denied Villegas’ motion to dismiss and barred him from claiming qualified immunity, clearing the way for the case to proceed. The city was dismissed from the lawsuit this past April, and in November, Buress and the city’s attorneys ultimately reached a settlement. As New Times previously reported, almost a year before Verne arrested Buress, in Janu- ary 2017, the officer had violently choked a man and slammed his head into a railing at Miller’s Ale House in Kendall after knocking back some drinks with fellow off-duty offi- cers. A witness said Verne had “attacked” the man, though the cops claimed the Ale House guest had hurled “obscene” comments at Verne, including calling him a “pig.” [email protected] | RIPTIDE | Comedian Hannibal Buress. Photo by RISE/Flickr ▼ DINNER KEY OH, BEBA! CAROLLO FAN CHARGED WITH BATTERY FOR BILLY CORBEN PHONE SNATCH. BY NAOMI FEINSTEIN A Miami resident and Joe Carollo super- fan is now facing a misdemeanor bat- tery charge after she snatched documentary filmmaker and civic watchdog Billy Corben’s phone during a sunshine meeting at Miami City Hall in May. The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office in- formation packet, dated November 25, obtained by New Times stated that Maria “Beba” Sardiña Mann “did unlawfully commit battery upon Wil- liam Cohen, AKA Billy Corben, by actually and intentionally touching or striking said person against said person’s will.” At the May 30 meet- ing inside the City of Miami commission cham- bers, Corben walked up and recorded Sardiña Mann talking to activist Thomas Kennedy while they stood in line for public comment. “She was way too close to me, and I turn around, and she looks at me and says, ‘You guys love to humiliate your- selves,” Kennedy previ- ously told New Times. “I gave her a grin. [Cor- ben] is filming and senses the hostility be- cause he is right there.” Mann waved and smiled before shoving her hand into the phone camera. The audio captured Corben’s muf- fled “Oof.” Kennedy said she then snatched the phone and slammed it onto the dais. Corben filed a complaint with the police department that day after a sergeant-at-arms witnessed the incident. “It was in front of everyone,” Kennedy said. “It was next to the city manager.”Following the inci- dent, however, he added that nobody took any action, and she was still allowed to speak at the meeting.”Imagine if roles were reversed,” he said. “We would be arrested on the spot, rightfully so.” Mann admitted during her two minutes of public speaking that she did in fact take Cor- ben’s phone. And, like her favorite commis- sioner, the woman called him “Mr. Cohen,” a reference to Corben’s legal name, which the filmmaker says public officials repeatedly use to draw attention to his Jewish heritage.”I want to put on the record right now that Mr. Cohen, Cor- ben, whatever his real legal name is, put a cam- era to my face, invaded my space, and he has a tendency, just like he has done here with the chicken and with everything else, to mock peo- ple and make fun of them,” she said before the commission. “If he so does desire to do CORBEN TELLS NEW TIMES THAT PROSECUTION WASN’T THE OUTCOME HE HOPED FOR. ▼ DINNER KEY SUAREZ’S MILLIONS FRANCIS SUAREZ LEAVES OFFICE A WHOLE LOT RICHER. BY ALEX DELUCA A fter eight years as Miami’s mayor, the term-limited Francis Suarez is finally stepping down. But while some of the city’s elected of- ficials are leaving office with lighter wallets than when they arrived (cough, cough, Commissioner Joe Carollo), that’s not the case for everyone. Financial disclosure records obtained by New Times reveal that while serving as mayor, he transformed a modest taxpayer- funded annual salary of $97,000 into a multimillion-dollar fortune, inflated by pri- vate consulting gigs and real estate deals. The records show that while his net worth hovered around $400,000 during his first year as mayor, it has since soared to more than $5 million. Suarez’s personal fortune includes a primary home valued at over $2 million, five investment properties ranging in value from about $200,000 to more than $600,000, a $235,000 boat, plus nearly $600,000 in cryptocurrency. Here’s how Suarez’s net worth bal- looned during his tenure as Miami’s mayor. 2018 | $411,704 After serving as a city commissioner for eight years, Suarez was elected as mayor in 2017 and officially began his term in 2018. 2019 | $582,776 During his second year in office, news broke that Suarez allegedly made a back- room deal with David Beckham and Jorge Mas to transform Melreese Golf Course into Miami Freedom Park (Inter Miami’s soccer stadium) to the tune of $1 billion. 2020 | $628,296 In February, Suarez’s chief spokesman, former television reporter Rene Pedrosa, resigned while under police investigation for “personal misconduct.” He was later sentenced to six years in prison on child pornography charges. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March, the mayor received regular criticism for breaking protocols — for instance, in May 2020, he was photo- graphed inside a packed restaurant just days after holding a press conference to discuss a surge in COVID-19 cases. 2021 | $1,338,551 Suarez was re-elected as mayor and, in May, joined the newly established Miami office of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sulli- van, where he has worked on and off as a private attorney. The firm notably repre- sents the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF), with which Suarez has >> p5 >> p4
