![\"Florida](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/IMG_Florida_Legislation__2_1_9RQELQRH_L893749213.JPG\" "\\"Florida")
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Florida State Rep. Fabian Basabe, R-Miami Beach, attends the first day of the legislative session at the Florida State Capitol on Tuesday, March 4, 2025, in Tallahassee.<\/p>\n
Photo by Matias J. Ocner<\/p>\n
mocner@miamiherald.com<\/p>\n
TALLAHASSEE<\/p>\n
On the second day of a civil jury trial in Tallahassee in which state Rep. Fabi\u00e1n Basabe is facing allegations of sexual harassment by a former legislative aide and an intern, the Miami Beach Republican on Tuesday denied the allegations and testified that the ex-aide \u201cwas always a loser.\u201d<\/p>\n
The former aide, Nicolas Frevola, has claimed that Basabe slapped him across the face and told him to stand in a corner at a private event in January 2023, and that, the month prior, Basabe slapped his butt without his consent while they attended an elementary school career day.<\/p>\n
After an investigation into the first incident commissioned by the Florida House came back with a finding of \u201cinconclusive,\u201d Basabe posted a social media statement referring to Frevola and his mother as a \u201cconning, scheming mother and son duo\u201d and decrying a \u201cfalse accusation\u201d made by \u201clazy, entitled, unscrupulous, self-involved, ungrateful, lying scum.\u201d<\/p>\n
Frevola\u2019s mother, Janette, who is also a plaintiff in the lawsuit and is accusing Basabe of defamation, sobbed on the witness stand Tuesday as she described the toll that Basabe\u2019s alleged actions took on her and her son.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis man has destroyed his life for no reason at all,\u201d said Janette Frevola, a former police officer who ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for the Florida House in 2022 in Central Florida.<\/p>\n
Leon County Circuit Judge J. Lee Marsh sent the jury out of the courtroom for a recess as Janette Frevola cried. Her son walked over to the witness stand to comfort her before she regained her composure and testimony continued.<\/p>\n
Janette said that, before working for Basabe, her son was a \u201cvery vibrant young man\u201d who \u201cloved everyone\u201d and \u201cgot along with everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, she said, \u201che\u2019s always upset and disappointed at life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lasting impact<\/p>\n
On Monday, the first day of the trial in which Basabe is representing himself without an attorney, the proceedings were shaded by Basabe\u2019s blundering legal missteps<\/a> and procedural chaos.<\/p>\n Marsh told the parties before the jury entered Tuesday that he decided not to sanction Basabe for his actions Monday \u2014 including referencing topics before the jury that the judge had told him not to \u2014 but he left the door open for a wide scope of punishments if Basabe didn\u2019t follow his orders, including potentially requiring Basabe to pay for fees and costs of the trial if \u201cyou are the cause\u201d of a mistrial.<\/p>\n Tuesday\u2019s proceedings featured some similar tensions over Basabe\u2019s legal acumen but also homed in on the question of what effect the Miami Beach representative\u2019s alleged harassment had on Nicolas and Janette Frevola and former Basabe intern Jacob Cutbirth, who has accused Basabe of trying to kiss him and making unwelcome sexual comments.<\/p>\n Basabe suggested that the plaintiffs had faced limited repercussions and spoke about the toll that their allegations took on his own well-being, referring to \u201ctwo massive investigations that took up three years of my life.\u201d A second investigation commissioned by the Florida House was unable to corroborate harassment claims by Frevola and Cutbirth.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s grave concern that people can just walk around saying anything about anyone and try to get away with it,\u201d Basabe said.<\/p>\n Frevola and Cutbirth have filed a separate lawsuit against the Florida House over its handling of the investigations, alleging that the investigative reports left out key details.<\/p>\n The two testified that the alleged harassment and impact from Basabe\u2019s social media post decrying the \u201cfalse accusation\u201d have continued to impact their lives.<\/p>\n Cutbirth described having \u201ca lot of anxiety\u201d around any news stories about the allegations and how he and his wife decided to retain separate last names, partly because of the way his name had been tied to sexual harassment claims.<\/p>\n \u201cIt would be actually very disheartening to hear that an employer would not want to hire me or my wife because of any type of adjacency to it, but also understand the reality that there is a lawsuit, that we\u2019re here now,\u201d Cutbirth said Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n Frevola detailed Monday how friends and colleagues in Tallahassee stopped answering his phone calls after he reported Basabe\u2019s alleged conduct and Basabe maligned him on social media.<\/p>\n \u201cThey made me out to be the enemy,\u201d he told the court Monday.<\/p>\n After receiving a degree in political science and working in the state Capitol for five years, Frevola said finding a job in politics in the years since serving in Basabe\u2019s office and reporting the harassment claims has \u201cbeen the hardest struggle of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n Old allegation enters the courtroom<\/p>\n A 2003 sexual assault allegation against Basabe also hung over the second day of trial \u2014 but the jury won\u2019t hear a thing about it.<\/p>\n A man using the pseudonym T.S. in court records flew to Tallahassee as \u201ca witness who chooses to be here on their own time, their own dime\u201d to bolster the former staffers\u2019 case, according to the plaintiffs\u2019 attorney Katherine Viker.<\/p>\n His account was first reported by the Miami Herald<\/a> in October 2024, in which he accused Basabe of drugging and raping him in Los Angeles 21 years earlier. The Los Angeles County District Attorney\u2019s Office told the Herald earlier this month that it declined to file charges after the man reported his allegations to the police in 2024 because it was outside the statute of limitations.<\/p>\n Basabe seemed unaware of the man\u2019s presence in the courthouse, after Marsh had ruled before trial that the man would not be permitted as a witness.<\/p>\n But the plaintiffs filed a midday request Tuesday to get the judge to reconsider that decision, arguing that Basabe had called his former staffers\u2019 honesty into question during the trial and that the third man\u2019s 2003 account was relevant to proving their credibility.<\/p>\n The judge allowed T.S. to take the witness stand without the jury in the room. He described, in great detail, the same allegations he previously recounted to the Herald: After getting in a hot tub with Basabe at an afterparty, he said, Basabe gave him a drink that seemingly caused him to fall over and become violently ill. Shortly after that, the man said, Basabe sexually assaulted him on a couch as he went in and out of consciousness.<\/p>\n Basabe denied the allegations when they were first made public in the Herald in 2024, and an attorney for him said in a statement at the time that he \u201chas never sexually battered anyone and never would.\u201d<\/p>\n After hearing the man\u2019s brief testimony \u2014 which included T.S. telling Basabe that his experience \u201cshows that you have a pattern\u201d \u2014 Marsh ruled that his testimony could confuse the jury in the current case and again ruled against letting him testify.<\/p>\n The jury is set to decide on whether Basabe should be held liable for the alleged harassment and defamation \u2014 and what, if anything, he should pay them in damages \u2014 by Thursday.<\/p>\n Aaron Leibowitz<\/a><\/p>\n Miami Herald<\/p>\n Aaron Leibowitz covers the city of Miami Beach for the Miami Herald. He was part of a team recognized as a 2026 Pulitzer Prize Finalist for Local Reporting for coverage of Brightline\u2019s safety record. He also contributed to the Herald\u2019s Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the Surfside condo collapse in 2021. He is a graduate of Columbia Journalism School\u2019s Toni Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism.\n <\/p>\n
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