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Nearly five years after his downtown Naples gay and lesbian bar closed, Mike Rodriguez got the justice he was seeking.

On Wednesday, after 1-1/2 hours of deliberations, a Palm Beach County jury awarded Rodriguez $1.5 million, agreeing that his former business partner and landlord, Shushanna Bernardo, breached a lease and settlement agreement involving the Galley Restaurant and Lounge.

The bar was at the corner of Third Street South and Fifth Avenue South until it shut down on Aug. 31, 2003, when its lease ran out.

The verdict followed a two-day trial before Palm Beach Circuit Judge Terrence McCarthy.

"The client is very happy," said Rodriguez’s attorney, Michael R.N. McDonnell of Naples. "It’s been a long road to justice for him."

Rodriguez, of Naples, said it’s been hard for him since his business was taken away and the only way he coped was his belief in God.

"When someone steals your business completely, that’s the only way you can find peace, going with God," Rodriguez said. "The only reason I won is I gave my life to the Lord. He led me to Mr. McDonnell. Mr. McDonnell believed in me and we won."

Naples residents, former customers, friends and family supported him through the court battle, he said, and some were there for the verdict.

He doesn’t know yet what he’s going to do with the money.

"I’m going to wait and see where the Lord takes me from here," he added.

Bernardo’s attorney, Charles Neustein of Miami, couldn’t be reached for comment.

Rodriguez had entered a 50-50 partnership with Bernardo, a businesswoman from Boca Raton, to purchase the new Galley building on the west side of U.S. 41 North — north of Immokalee Road — shortly after the downtown location closed in August 2003.

Many former Galley employees and patrons moved to Snappers Night Club in East Naples after the closing.

The partners couldn’t settle their differences and in November 2004, Bernardo was granted full control after a Palm Beach circuit judge broke a deadlock between the two.

Two months earlier, she’d filed another lawsuit alleging she’d loaned Rodriguez $400,000 for the bar, he was misappropriating money, and breached the lease. She demanded an accounting of funds and accused Rodriguez of telling the manager to withhold information from her, then locking her out — and alleged he broke into the building after she gained control.

Rodriguez denied the allegations, except to admit she’d paid him $400,000 as a purchase price to become a partner in the business he’d operated for more than a decade. However, he pointed out he’d paid $200,000 for improvements to the new location and $200,000 to get his nightclub back, so she got her investment back.

He accused her of "unclean hands," a defense used in lawsuits when a plaintiff has done something unethical involving allegations in the lawsuit. If a defendant proves the plaintiff had "unclean hands," the plaintiff’s lawsuit will be dismissed or the plaintiff will be denied judgment.

Rodriguez’s countersuit alleged that he’d invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in the business, but Bernardo meddled and interfered with its administration until she shut him out by court order.

He alleged she misappropriated his money and the Galley by creating a competing business on the property they’d leased together; the nightclub opened under another name and soon closed.

Rodriguez contended he’d lived up to their settlement agreement, but she reneged.

Jurors agreed.