This village sued a commissioner as he was being evicted. He calls it a political coup
Biscayne Park filed an unusual lawsuit earlier this year. The tiny village sued one of its own elected officials, Dan Samaria, saying there was reason to believe he may no longer be a resident there, which would be a violation of state law for a sitting commissioner.
But Samaria says that although he was unable to pay his mortgage while undergoing cancer treatment and was ultimately evicted from his home, he never moved outside the 3,000-person community nestled between Miami Shores and North Miami. Ultimately, the lawsuit against him was dropped. Now, he’s suing back.
In a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Miami-Dade Circuit Court, Samaria accuses the former mayor, manager and attorney of conspiring to try to oust him from office during a moment of political upheaval in the village. The complaint, which seeks $1 million in damages, points to Samaria’s commission seat as a critical one in determining the balance of power on the five-member panel.
“This was nothing short of an attempted political coup, misusing tax dollars and running around in the shadows in violation of the law to try and get rid of a political opponent,” Samaria’s attorney, Michael Pizzi, told the Miami Herald. “This was a conspiracy to misuse public money to violate the city charter, all in an effort to illegally remove a duly elected official who was asking the right questions and trying to do his job.”
One week after the village filed its lawsuit against Samaria in January, then-Mayor Tracy Truppman didn’t show up to a commission meeting where two new commissioners were scheduled to be sworn in and a new mayor was set to be appointed. Krishan Manners, the village manager at the time, postponed the meeting due to Truppman’s last-minute absence, sparking outrage among some residents and commissioners before the new appointees were sworn in two days later.
Those new commissioners, MacDonald Kennedy and Virginia O’Halpin, were replacing Betsy Wise and Jenny Johnson-Sardella, who both resigned in late 2019. Samaria’s lawsuit describes Wise and Johnson-Sardella as “allies” of Truppman, and claims their resignations removed Truppman’s “majority hold and control over the Commission.”
Kennedy and O’Halpin — both critics of Truppman — took over the commission seats in a special election on Jan. 7. Samaria, who was elected in 2018, was also a frequent critic of Truppman and her administration.
It was around that time that village officials began seeking answers from Samaria about his residency. On Jan. 3, village attorney Rebecca Rodriguez of the law firm GrayRobinson sent an email to Samaria.
“[A]llegations have been raised that you no longer maintain a permanent residence within the Village of Biscayne Park and may potentially be disqualified from holding the office,” the message said.
Attached to the email was a judgment of foreclosure issued against Samaria in September 2018, as well as a writ of possession entered Dec. 31, 2019, that instructed the sheriff’s office to remove him from his home. Rodriguez asked Samaria to provide documents proving he still lived in the village, but Samaria refused.
The village filed its lawsuit against him on Jan. 9. But Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Antonio Arzola dismissed the case on Jan. 30, saying Samaria had proven at a hearing that he had not yet been removed from his home.
“For this reason, the court finds that this suit is not ripe and was prematurely filed,” Arzola wrote.
A few days later, on Feb. 4, Truppman resigned two hours before a commission meeting where a new mayor was going to be appointed. The mayor in Biscayne Park is selected by a vote of the commission, rather than by the general public.
At the meeting that night, the commission voted 3-1 (Samaria recused himself) to suspend Manners, the village manager, with pay, citing his decision to postpone the January meeting and his move to bring the suit against Samaria without first consulting the commission. The body also voted to immediately terminate its relationship with GrayRobinson, which had already told village officials it planned to resign as the village’s contract attorney after 30 days due to unspecified “recent developments.”
Manners came before the commission again on March 3 for a hearing to determine his fate, defending his actions as multiple commissioners grilled him with questions.
“There’s been a lot of talk throughout the village about how big, bad Krishan beat up on poor, sick Dan,” Manners said inside Biscayne Park’s historic log cabin. “We all knew Dan was losing his home. Dan has never made it a secret.”
Manners said he asked the village attorney to send Samaria the letter seeking information about his living situation, and then followed up with Samaria directly after that. Manners also said at the March 3 hearing that he had been in contact with Samaria’s bank about when the bank would be changing the locks at Samaria’s home.
The lawsuit accuses the former village officials of conspiring with Samaria’s bank and mortgage company “to try and expedite a foreclosure on his residence so that he would lose his legal residency.”
Pizzi said Samaria, who runs a pest control business, no longer owns his home but is living elsewhere in the village. Samaria also said at the March 3 meeting that he had recently undergone surgery and was “cancer free.”
“He’s still a lawful resident of Biscayne Park. He never left,” Pizzi said. “His health is getting better and he’s back to work with his pest control business.”
Samaria’s lawsuit names the village, Truppman, Manners and Rodriguez as defendants. It makes claims of civil conspiracy, which involves two or more parties conspiring to do something unlawful, as well as intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Interim Village Manager David Hernandez declined to comment Wednesday on behalf of the village. Truppman, Manners and Rodriguez did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
This story was originally published June 24, 2020 at 2:54 PM.
