North Miami Beach Mayor Anthony DeFillipo’s deposition amidst a questionable residency scandal was filed with Miami-Dade County on March 7, just two weeks before the city commission is expected to maintain its first meeting with a quorum since October.
He most notably claims that his wife of nearly 20 years and his two children have not lived in the same house as him since December 2021. DeFillipo says they currently live in a home in Davie, where the mayor himself has been suspected of residing, and that the kids go to school in Broward County.
DeFillipo has been facing allegations that he does not live in North Miami Beach since late last year. As a result, half of the remaining commissioners have been absent from meetings in protest, causing city business to come to a halt.
The North Miami Beach city charter states that all elected officials must live in the city as a “bona fide resident,” having “a permanent, fixed place of domicile within the City of North Miami Beach, to the exclusion of all other places.” If an elected official fails to remain a bona fide resident during their term, their seat is vacated.
The deposition, conducted on March 3 by attorney Luis Suarez, a partner with Heise Suarez Melville, is the first case in which DeFillipo has explained his residency status in detail since suspicions arose. He has, however, maintained that he's lived in the city the entire time, now living in an 830-square-foot condominium located in the Eastern Shores neighborhood of North Miami Beach.
His and his family’s relocations began in December 2021, when he sold the North Miami Beach property that had originally qualified him to run for mayor in November 2018. DeFillipo said in the deposition that he went to live with his sick mother, whose address was redacted from the deposition’s transcript to preserve confidentiality, and then moved into his current condominium in October 2022.
In the meantime, his wife and two children have lived in one of two Davie properties, the first of which was bought in February 2021 and sold in June 2022. The second home was bought in July 2022.
“My wife was fed up with politics and the insanity that was going on in the city with the government and all of the things that happened to her,” DeFillipo said.
He says his wife was sexually assaulted by someone who was eventually caught by the police department. DeFillipo also said they had experienced a drive-by shooting while in their home in North Miami Beach. The Biscayne Times plans to reach out to the local police department to obtain reports for both incidents.
DeFillipo, who is an investor with multiple properties under his name over the course of several years, previously filed for homestead exemption with his original qualifying address in North Miami Beach. He no longer has any property filed under the exemption.
Much of the suspicion surrounding his residency resulted from an investigation paid for by a neighborhood association, conducted by a private company named Countywide Investigations. Surveillance cameras caught his car entering the gated community in Davie at night and leaving in the morning for 19 straight days.
DeFillipo could not confirm exactly how often he goes to the Davie property, where he oversees construction work, visits his family and often picks his children up to take them to school.
“I try and spend as much time with my family as I can … I'm a family man and I'm trying to make sure I keep my family together. It's very hard what I'm going through, but God is great and this too shall pass,” he said.
DeFillipo admitted to serving on the homeowners association board for the second Davie property from September 2022 to January 2023, just two days after he filed the lawsuit against the city of North Miami Beach for its months-long failure to conduct business. He says he did so to ensure that funds were being managed properly and resigned once the transition from the developer to the Sierra Ranches Community Association had been completed.
DeFillipo also said that for more than five years he's served on the condo board of the building where he claims to be living.
Hours into the deposition, DeFillipo began to express disappointment in the way accusations have been lodged against him.
“Everything that's attached to what [Countywide Investigations] did is all phony and is all fake and is all a character assassination against myself and a plot that other people are involved in to try and oust me from my seat, and it's not going to happen,” DeFillipo said.
He also expressed his concerns with city attorney Hans Ottinot, who hired Suarez and walked out of the February meeting to boycott DeFillipo. DeFillipo says he has been wanting to fire Ottinot for months now due to a lack of professionalism that he claims has nothing to do with his residency issue.
Commissioners Daniela Jean, McKenzie Fleurimond and Michael Joseph have all walked out or been absent from the past three meetings but were ordered by a judge to attend the next meeting on March 21. A trial to officially determine DeFillipo’s residency may occur in the week after that.
“I hope to reunite with my family someday soon,” said DeFillipo. “I don't know if it will be [in Davie] or if it will be in another house … My wife has made that her permanent residence and I visit my family as many times as I can while my permanent residence is here in North Miami Beach at 3601 Northeast 170th Street, apartment 406.”