Coral Gables mayor and Spanish radio station reach settlement in defamation suit
Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago and Actualidad Media Group have reached a settlement in a defamation lawsuit the mayor filed in reference to remarks made on a local Spanish-language radio station, court records show.
The recent settlement ends a lengthy court battle between Lago and the station, which aired host Roberto Rodriguez Tejera’s show on Actualidad 1040 AM. Details of the settlement have not been disclosed.
Lago sued in 2023, saying his personal and professional reputation were damaged after Tejera and Coral Gables Commissioner Ariel Fernandez, who was then a candidate, falsely claimed during an on-air segment that Lago was the subject of a Miami-Dade Ethics Commission investigation regarding a potential conflict of interest.
At the time, Lago was under a preliminary review by the commission after it was alleged that his family had financial ties to a trailer park at the center of a city annexation battle. The Ethics Commission has said it does not consider a preliminary review to be an investigation.
The ethics commission later closed out the matter, writing that “the preliminary information gathered does not support further investigation.”
Lago claimed the radio station “deliberately fabricated the narrative” that the mayor was under an ethics investigation “to falsely suggest to its listeners that the ethics commission had found evidence of unethical or illegal behavior by Lago.”
The media company argued that the statements were not fabricated. “Even assuming, arguendo, that the Statement was not perfectly or technically accurate, the ‘gist’ or the ‘sting’ of the Statement is still true or, at a minimum, substantially true,” the company wrote in court documents.
The settlement was reached last week, according to a notice filed by Joseph P. Farina, a retired Miami-Dade chief circuit court judge who has served as a mediator in the case since April.
Attorneys for the two parties sent the Miami Herald the same statement on Wednesday:
“Actualidad 1040 AM would like to clarify: On February 27, 2023, it was reported on the Contacto Directo radio show on Actualidad 1040 AM that there was an ethics investigation against Mayor Lago. To clarify, the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust had opened a ‘matter under initial review.’ The matter was opened because unnamed concerned individuals had lodged a confidential ethics complaint against Mayor Lago. After undergoing its internal process, on August 23, 2023 the Ethics Commission determined that the complaint was ‘not legally sufficient to commence an investigation’ and closed the matter. The parties have amicably resolved their dispute, and Mayor Lago has agreed to dismiss his lawsuit.”
Miami Herald staff writer Tess Riski contributed to this report.
