A single-item agenda at a Bayfront Park Management Trust meeting on August 13 turned into a shouting match between Miami Commissioner Miguel Angel Gabela and documentary filmmaker Billy Corben, ending with a board member accused of grabbing Corben's wrist and a police report filed. A sergeant-at-arms had to physically hold Gabela back from Corben during the confrontation.
According to the Miami Herald, Corben — the filmmaker behind Cocaine Cowboys, 537 Votes, and The U, and host of the #BecauseMiami podcast, according to Coconut Grove Spotlight — was filming the meeting on his phone when board member Carlos Martell appeared to grab him, per unedited footage of the incident. Corben alleges Martell grabbed and yanked his right hand and wrist, and he has since filed a police report about the encounter, though police have made no arrests. Corben, who has 159,000 Instagram followers, said he was simply exercising his right as a public attendee to record and participate in public comment.
Gabela yelled at Corben during the meeting and called him a clown, telling a Miami police officer present that Corben should be arrested. The commissioner later said Corben had been provoking him for months and said he did not personally witness Martell make physical contact with Corben. Martell was appointed to the trust board under Gabela's chairmanship in February 2024, per city records.
A Meeting Recorded, A Right Disputed
The trust records each of its meetings on official video and allows people to join remotely over Zoom. Footage from that official recording showed Corben grinning while filming but staying in one general area before the physical clash broke out, the Herald reports. Under Florida Statute 286.011 and opinions from the Florida Attorney General's office, private citizens have an affirmative legal right to record open public meetings using non-disruptive devices — a right Corben invoked in the aftermath.
Not everyone who captured the altercation has been willing to share what they recorded. Jose Sanchez-Gronlier, who served as Gabela's city-funded attorney in the District 1 office, declined to share his own video of the meeting. Also present was Mariela Gabela, the commissioner's wife, who made comments about Corben's wife during the fracas; Gabela has said his wife is an unpaid volunteer in his office.
Death Threats and a Call to Resign
The confrontation didn't stay confined to the room. Gabela posted an Instagram statement afterward describing agitation and what he called compromised security for board members and their families, denying critics' accusations against him. He said he and his wife are not bad people and are tired of being abused. Police opened an investigation in June into death threats made against Gabela, and Corben — despite being one of Gabela's most persistent critics — condemned those threats and said he was never a threat or instigator himself.
James Torres, another attendee, said the city was supposed to have been cleaned up but had returned to where it started, and he called on Gabela to resign as chairman of the trust. Corben has escalated his public criticism of Gabela in other ways too, including posting a music video titled Ooga Booga mocking the commissioner.
A Trust With a Turbulent Recent History
Gabela is no stranger to combustible meetings. During his first month in office in 2023, he almost got into a brawl with then-Commissioner Joe Carollo, whom he defeated in the broader political shakeup that followed the suspension of former District 1 Commissioner Alex Díaz de la Portilla. Díaz de la Portilla had faced money-laundering and bribery charges, but Broward County prosecutors dropped all 14 counts against him in November 2024, citing insufficient evidence of criminal intent, according to WLRN. Gabela went on to become commissioner in 2023 and took over the Bayfront Park Management Trust after Carollo, who was ousted from his trust role in 2025.
That ouster came after years of turmoil. Miami City Commissioners voted 3-1 in July 2025 to abolish the trust entirely, effective January 1, 2026, following allegations of financial mismanagement and infighting between Gabela and Carollo. The Supreme Court declined in March to hear Carollo's appeal of a $63.5 million federal civil verdict against him for weaponizing city authority against local business owners, a case Hoodline covered in detail in its report on the Supreme Court decision. Two former trust executives also settled a federal whistleblower lawsuit against Carollo in May, alleging financial misuse and workplace retaliation during his chairmanship.
Scrutiny Now Falls on Gabela
With Carollo gone, activist attention has shifted squarely to Gabela's own stewardship of the trust, which manages both Bayfront Park and Maurice Ferré Park and generates significant revenue from events like the Ultra Music Festival, which alone provides roughly $2.08 million annually in base park rental income. Investigative reporting in July revealed Gabela's office spent approximately $450,000 in discretionary taxpayer funds on little-known promotional firms with minimal digital footprint, according to WLRN — spending that drew intense scrutiny from local political activists. The trust board also voted in June to cut Executive Director Raul Miro's annual salary from $255,000 to $175,000 following criticism over his political ties to Gabela's political action committees, per Florida Bulldog.
Gabela has pushed back on the growing criticism, saying activists have targeted him simply because Carollo is no longer in office. He is up for reelection next year, and the trust itself is slated for dissolution at the start of 2026 under the city commission's earlier vote — leaving the board's remaining months clouded by the same kind of public confrontation that has defined much of its recent history.
