A judge muted the microphone of Miami City Attorney Victoria Méndez after she spoke over him and made what he called a “political speech” during her sworn testimony Monday morning in a civil case accusing Méndez and her husband of operating a home-flipping scheme that took advantage of an elderly Little Havana homeowner.
“I will not tolerate her taking over control of the courtroom to make speeches and not answer the question,” Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge David C. Miller said during the hearing, which was held virtually over Zoom.
“ So Ms. Méndez, if you can control yourself,” Miller continued, “please tell us or answer the question.”
The exchange took place during Méndez’s testimony in a lawsuit filed last year by Jose Alvarez, who alleges that Méndez and her husband orchestrated a “conspiratorial scheme to enrich” themselves. After Méndez’s husband purchased Alvarez’s Little Havana home in 2017, the lawsuit alleges that he then renovated it, mostly without permits, and used his political connections in City Hall to have the code violations — which included over $270,000 in fines — cleared by the city’s code enforcement board, later selling it for $165,000 more than he bought it.