A Leon County jury didn't buy whatever Rep. Fabian Basabe was selling. The Miami Beach Republican was found liable this week for sexually harassing two former male staffers, along with battery and defamation, and was ordered to pay them $450,000 in damages, Florida Politics reports.
The allegations, first brought in 2023 by former aide Nicolas Frevola and former intern Jacob Cutbirth, describe a pattern of unwanted advances: Basabe allegedly grilled the young men about their sex lives, used graphic language pushing them toward men, and showed them a photo of a naked man on his phone, on top of slapping one on the buttocks during an elementary school career day and trying to kiss the other before hiring him as an intern a month later.
Frevola recalled Basabe “slapping him on his rear and whispering in his ear ‘I want all of that butt’ while they were standing in the back of a classroom full of elementary school children.”
The former staffer’s attorney, Cindy Myers, told the news outlet Florida Politics that the jury concluded Basabe sexually harassed Cutbirth on numerous occasions, including by “asking him how big his genitals were, and encouraging him to break off his engagement with his wife to have sex with Mr. Basabe and other men for sport.”
“How this man got re-elected in Miami is beyond me, and it goes without saying that the voters in that district should seriously reconsider sending him back to office again when the next election is held later this year,” Myers added.
Rather than let actual lawyers handle any of this, Basabe fired his attorneys and represented himself — badly. At one especially rough patch, he reportedly turned to ChatGPT mid-trial to try to work out a point of law, then asked the judge for a break to collect himself. The judge granted a ten-minute recess, according to CBS News.
Basabe hasn't resigned, and Florida House leadership hasn't exactly been racing to comment — Speaker Daniel Perez's office didn't respond to reporters' calls. Given that this is a guy who used his lingerie-heiress wife's money to buy his way into the Legislature in 2022, don't expect this to be the last headline with his name on it.
And yeah, he's not just married; they have a son.
