The top government attorney of a South Miami-Dade suburb threatened this week to sue a political activist for accusing him on Twitter of lying — using official Palmetto Bay letterhead and a police officer to deliver the message.
On Monday night, Palmetto Bay resident Mark Merwitzer, 23, arrived at Village Hall prepared to comment on the village’s controversial decision to kill a group of Muscovy ducks in a local park. Merwitzer took a seat before the meeting began, he said, and shortly thereafter a police officer tapped him on the shoulder, escorted him out of the chambers and asked to see his ID before handing him a letter.
It was written by Village Attorney John Dellagloria on Palmetto Bay letterhead. The attorney accused Merwitzer of libeling him on Twitter by publishing false information.
“The damages I will seek will be enormous,” wrote Dellagloria. “You are here by putting on NOTICE that you are to both issue a written apology and post it on twitter as your retraction.”
He also said he wouldn’t allow Merwitzer to “sully my reputation.”
Merwitzer, who has history with Dellagloria, says the village attorney was trying to intimidate him.
“I walked back into the meeting after this was just really shocked that he used a police officer,” Merwitzer said.
Dellagloria said he handed the letter to the village clerk at Monday’s council meeting and that he did not intend for a police officer to deliver it to Merwitzer. Despite the fact that he printed it on the Palmetto Bay letterhead, Dellagloria said, he would have sued in his individual capacity and paid for legal fees out of his own pocket — not on the taxpayer dime.
A lie?
in the tweets in question, posted on April 22, Merwitzer accused Dellagloria of “childish behavior” and, referring to an incident several years ago, said he “lied about me to prevent me from presenting before another committee.”
Merwitzer previously alleged that, during a 2020 public meeting, Dellagloria accused him of being a lobbyist and thus prevented him from speaking. The Miami-Dade Ethics Commission concluded that the question about Merwitzer’s lobbying status was “reasonable.” They also wrote that their review did not support the claim that Dellagloria prevented Merwitzer from speaking.
Dellagloria said the Ethics Commission’s findings prove that he is not, in fact, a liar. His letter demanded a retraction and apology by Thursday.
But after being contacted by Merwitzer’s attorney as well as the Miami Herald, Dellagloria is standing down.
Dellagloria told the Herald that he spoke with Merwitzer’s attorney David Winker and told him, “Instead of writing articles, why don’t the three of us sit down and talk?”
That same day, Winker wrote to Dellagloria that his client stands behind his allegation. Winker wrote that the lawsuit would not only be “shameful and frivolous,” but that it would also violate Florida’s anti-SLAPP statute, which prohibits governmental entities within the state from bringing lawsuits against individuals for exercising their right of free speech “in connection with a public issue.”
READ MORE: A hired trapper killed ‘aggressive’ ducks at a Miami-area park. Then came the outrage
Merwitzer’s response to Dellagloria’s peace offering: “If he just leaves me alone from this point forward, I’m good,” he said.
Politics at play?
Merwitzer is a known figure in Palmetto Bay political circles, serving as the campaign treasurer in 2022 for Former Mayor Eugene Flinn. The current major, Karyn Cunningham, unseated Flinn in 2018. She won against him again in the 2022 general election. The village hired Dellagloria in 2019 during Cunningham’s first term.
Merwitzer has also been a vocal critic of the village’s decision to kill Muscovy ducks in Coral Reef Park. He filed multiple public records requests with the village, which yielded invoices from the duck removal company as well as graphic photos taken by the trapper of the dead ducks lined up in the park.
Merwitzer said he believed the libel lawsuit threat was politically motivated, and that Dellagloria saw him as “a threat” to the Village Council.
Dellagloria denied that claim. “No of course not,” he said when asked if politics were at play. “The fact that he represented the former mayor who lost his election has nothing to do with anything.”