State: Charges dropped against mayor

Charges dropped against mayor

©Associated Press

MIAMI -- The State Attorney's Office dropped battery charges against Miami Mayor Joe Carollo on Monday as a result of the mayor's completion of a family counseling program.

Carollo was charged with misdemeanor battery after he allegedly tossed a cardboard tea container that hit his wife, Maria Ledon Carollo, in the head as they quarreled at their home the morning of Feb. 7. Police responded to a 911 call from the couple's daughter.

"The bottom line was that there was no crime committed at that moment," Carollo said at a news conference Monday. "It was an accident, and this is behind us now."

Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said in a statement that prosecutors met several times with Carollo's attorneys and decided the charges could be dropped if the mayor completed a counseling program.

"Successful completion . . . allows the offender not to have a criminal record while providing rehabilitation to the behavior which led police to intervention and/or the filing of charges," Rundle said. She said Mrs. Carollo, who filed for divorce in November, agreed with the resolution. Carollo's lawyer, Ben Kuehne, said Carollo "will continue his public pursuits."

"He intends to do his part to be a good father, now and even after the divorce," Kuehne added.

He said Carollo passed a polygraph test administered Feb. 24 by the State Attorney's Office. "The polygraph showed that he did not commit a crime," he said.

Carollo began counseling on March 21 under the supervision of Dr. Simon Miranda, a clinical psychologist, Rundle said.

Rundle said the dropped charges were a standard disposition of a first-time offender charged with misdemeanor battery.

The State Attorney's Office, not Mrs. Carollo, pressed charges against her husband after police were called to the home.

In her interview with police after the incident, she said she and the mayor began arguing in the kitchen. The mayor asked her how to make tea, and she told him to fill a pot with water and let it boil. He asked again if he was supposed to fill the pot with water. "No, point your finger and water will appear," Mrs. Carollo recalled saying.

The two then began to insult each another, according to the transcript. Then the mayor threw the cardboard canister.

Police took two photos, which were released to the public. One showed redness on Mrs. Carollo's left temple.