Coral Gables mayor files defamation lawsuit against local radio station
Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago has filed a defamation lawsuit against a local Spanish-language radio station, claiming his reputation was damaged by comments its host and a city commissioner made about an ethics inquiry into the mayor’s purported familial financial ties to a trailer park at the center of the city’s battle to annex a nearby unincorporated enclave.
The lawsuit, filed in late December, alleges that Actualidad 1040 AM radio host Roberto Rodriguez Tejera and Commissioner Ariel Fernandez “falsely” claimed during an on-air segment in February that Lago was the subject of a Miami-Dade Ethics Commission investigation for a potential conflict of interest. At the time, Lago was under a preliminary review, which the agency does not consider to be an investigation.
The lawsuit, which names Actualidad Media Group LLC as the sole defendant, says the comments caused a “deterioration of Lago’s personal and business reputation in the community, humiliation, embarrassment and ridicule.” The mayor is seeking at least $50,000 in damages, although he did not specify how he arrived at that number.
The lawsuit’s filing landed at the tail-end of a year in which Lago had multiple disputes with media critics, including a heated exchange in which Lago threatened to sue Miami documentary filmmaker Billy Corben for defamation, and Corben accused Lago of anti-Semitism for repeatedly calling him by his legal last name, Cohen. He also described local outlets, including the Miami Herald, as “propaganda.”
The threshold for a sitting elected official to win a defamation lawsuit is high. In a statement to the Herald, Lago said that he is suing Actualidad in his personal capacity in order to “protect my reputation as a business owner and as a member of this community.”
“Freedom of the press is a cornerstone of our democratic society, providing citizens with access to information and fostering an informed public discourse is a very important bedrock principle of our country,” Lago said. “However, with this freedom comes the responsibility to exercise it judiciously and ethically.”
He added that his decision to sue “stems from my firm belief that the media should be held to account when they cross the line.”
Rodriguez Tejera told the Herald the accusations are without merit, describing the lawsuit as “posturing.” He added that he looks forward to the discovery process.
“It was not our intention, and we were not looking for it,” Rodriguez Tejera said, “but it is always good to have an opportunity to have a politician under oath when we ask them questions regarding their public actions and decisions.”
Lawsuit allegations
During the radio segment in question, Rodriguez Tejera and Fernandez, who was a candidate at the time and running the Gables Insider blog, were discussing the mayor’s efforts to annex Little Gables, an unincorporated enclave on the city’s northern border.
According to a transcript included in the complaint — which was first reported by Political Cortadito — Rodriguez Tejera suggested there was an investigation into Lago after the mayor signed a sworn affidavit in 2022 proclaiming neither he nor any of his immediate family members had a business interest in annexing Little Gables.
But critics pointed out that at the time, Lago’s brother, Carlos Lago, was a registered lobbyist in Miami for a company that owns a trailer park in Little Gables that was the topic of redevelopment discussions during a previous bid to annex the neighborhood.
READ MORE: Coral Gables says expansion won’t doom trailer park, but annexation anxiety persists
A spokesperson for the law firm where Carlos Lago works previously told the Herald that the mayor’s brother only represented the company for one project back in 2015 in Miami, and that his registration became “effectively inoperative” thereafter. He withdrew his lobbyist registration for the company on March 6 — days after the Actualidad segment aired on February 27.
In the lawsuit, Lago points out that, contrary to comments made on air, he was not under investigation by the Ethics Commission. He was, however, under a preliminary review that had begun 10 days prior to the Actualidad segment, according to Jose Arrojo, executive director of the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust.
That review, concluded in October, determined that Lago “did not knowingly make a false statement,” and that the preliminary fact-finding did not merit further scrutiny, effectively closing out the matter. Arrojo told the Herald the distinction between a review and an investigation is important, because “the lesser designation is designed to prevent the unfair smear effect that the label ‘under investigation’” could have on a public official.
“If Mr. Lago advises that he was never under investigation,” Arrojo said in an email, “then this is accurate.”
Lago also alleged that Rodriguez Tejera and Fernandez had no factual basis for their claims because such reviews are “confidential and exempt from disclosure” until a determination is made, though it’s not uncommon for protected information to leak.
It’s also unclear what sparked the review to begin with. According to Arrojo, there wasn’t an individual complaint that prompted it, “but rather contacts from more than one party that made general allegations regarding development projects in the Gables including the Little Gables and Mr. Lago’s connections to developers or lobbyists.”
Political backdrop
In April, the City Commission experienced a shakeup after two candidates who were vocal critics of Lago — Fernandez and Melissa Castro — won against Lago’s chosen candidates. Since then, multiple split votes have divided the commission in recent months, with Lago occasionally being on the losing side.
The tension reached a crescendo in October when the commission voted to censure Lago after he insulted his colleagues on Spanish-language media, including saying Fernandez and Commissioner Kirk Menendez “live off their wives.” At the time the mayor made those comments, Menendez — typically a Lago ally — had recently become a swing vote on the commission.
READ MORE: Coral Gables city commissioners give themselves 78% raises and $8,400 car allowances
In the lawsuit, Lago alleges that the radio station “knew that Fernandez was going to make that false statement on the air before he uttered the defamatory charge.”
“In fact,” the complaint alleges, “the Radio Station invited Fernandez as a guest on the Show because Fernandez was prepared and planned to make those false accusations on the air.”
Reached by phone Wednesday, Fernandez did not immediately recall the radio segment, but said the lawsuit is reminiscent of actions taken by dictators in Cuba and Venezuela.
“He needs to grow thicker skin, at the end of the day,” Fernandez said of the mayor. He pointed to the shifting dynamics on the City Commission.
“Vince Lago doesn’t like that,” Fernandez said of the changes. “So he’s trying to find a way to silence his opponents and take full control as the despot that he was before” the April elections.
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