‘He’s not stupid’: Miami Beach lawmaker fumbles through sexual harassment trial

At a civil trial in Tallahassee that began Monday, a judge told state lawmaker Fabian Basabe, a Miami Beach Republican, repeatedly that the courtroom was not a law school, accused him of blatantly violating court orders and briefly threatened to call a mistrial during a chaotic opening day.

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Basabe — who is not an attorney — is representing himself against civil charges that he sexually harassed a former legislative aide and an intern, and later defamed the staffer and his mother. Basabe, 48, denies all of the allegations.

The former reality TV figure and New York socialite fumbled through testimony and cross-examination of the two men accusing him of sexual harassment and frequently tried to ask the opposing attorneys and Judge J. Lee Marsh for legal advice.

But while Basabe presented himself as a confused neophyte throughout the day, he made clear his keen awareness of his public image and of the handful of news reporters in the room.

At one point he asked the judge if he could defend himself with no jury present, noting that there was media in the room. He later left his bench, walked to where a Miami Herald reporter was sitting and dropped a handful of documents — despite refusing to answer other questions from that reporter and at one point threatening to call security on them.

His opposing counsel called the meandering show a calculated performance.

“I think we absolutely have grounds for a mistrial. But I’ll tell you, I think that’s exactly his goal. He’s not stupid,” the plaintiff’s trial attorney, Katherine Viker, told Marsh. “He’s up for reelection, he’s made the motion to continue, he’s come in here and played innocent. It’s offensive.”

Basabe has been a member of the state House since 2022 and is up for reelection this fall. That campaign loomed over the trial.

“We are shocked that this man who can’t represent himself has been elected by the people of Miami. They might want to reconsider,” Viker told reporters at the end of the day.

In response to the accusation that he was intentionally throwing the trial, Basabe told the judge “that’s impossible.” He did not respond to in-person or emailed questions from the Herald. In his opening statement he suggested that he saw the trial as a way to clear his name from what he sees as baseless allegations.

“The easier path would have been to just move on. Settle and move on. The easier path would have been to put a price tag on my reputation,” Basabe said.

Immediately after that comment, Marsh kicked the jury out and told Basabe he wasn’t allowed to talk about settlement negotiations — the first in a wave of procedural violations throughout the day that led the judge to say it was “staggering how blatantly” Basabe was violating court orders.

‘I want all of that butt’

Amid the rocky court procedures, most of the day was made up of two young men recounting detailed, and at times emotional, accounts of their interactions with Basabe — and their dashed dreams of working in Florida politics in the fallout of his alleged harassment.

Read more ‘He’s not stupid’: Miami Beach lawmaker fumbles through sexual harassment trial

READ MORE: Two employees accuse Florida Rep. Fabian Basabe of sexual harassment in lawsuit

Former legislative aide Nicolas Frevola was on the witness stand most of the day, recounting and reenacting two different times he says Basabe publicly slapped him. The first time, according to Frevola, was in the back of an elementary school classroom in 2022 where he says Basabe “whispered in my ear, ‘I want all of that butt,’ and proceeded to slap my buttocks.”

Frevola testified that he was too stunned and embarrassed to tell anyone in the immediate aftermath. Later, at a party in Tallahassee, he said Basabe slapped him across the face in a room of about two dozen people and told him to stand in the corner.

When Basabe asked him why he didn’t tell his parents, who Frevola said are both in law enforcement, Frevola said, “Because I was embarrassed and humiliated by you.”

Basabe, who denies the allegations, asked in many ways why there weren’t witnesses who saw either incident — twice asking Frevola if there were “oversized children” in the elementary classroom blocking potential witnesses’ views.

Jacob Cutbirth, who was an unpaid student intern in Basabe’s office, testified that the lawmaker put his hand on his thigh without his consent while whispering about sex with men into his ear, asking him about his penis size and calling sexual interactions between men “sports f——.”

Basabe asked him about their written communications, to which Cutbirth said there had been no sexually suggestive written messages from Basabe to the same effect.

Cutbirth testified that after the string of alleged interactions with Basabe, he decided to change his plans for a career in politics and now works for a gas station chain.

“If this is what the government looks like, then I don’t want a part of it. I don’t think I can find happiness working in a career field where this type of behavior is allowed to exist,” Cutbirth told the court.

Hanging over this week’s trial is a separate case related to whether the Florida House of Representatives mishandled an investigation after Frevola reported the alleged harassment.

Frevola attorney Cynthia Myers told the Herald she believes Republican lawmakers “circled the wagons” to protect a fellow Republican lawmaker and ensure no potential witnesses would testify to seeing the second alleged slap. In this case, a pretrial ruling blocked any discussion of the House investigation and report — which was “inconclusive” about whether the slap occurred.

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Miami Herald staff reporter Aaron Leibowitz contributed to this report.

This story was originally published July 13, 2026 at 7:39 PM.