Florida Politics37%
Sworn testimony: Another House aide, son of former MLB star, said Fabián Basabe propositioned him for sex 16%
By Jesse Scheckner32%
8/3/2026, 1:47:51 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 22 faulty reasoning types, including Confirmation Bias, Appeal to Emotion, and Anecdotal, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 21.1% saturation with 234 hits. Analysis detected 1,020 faulty-reasoning hits from 1,110 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 25.1% and a BS Rank of 16% (23,951 of 28,206 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 84.90% of the article peer group.
Many South Florida voters have heard by now about multiple accusations of sexual impropriety by Rep.
Fabián Basabe , but sworn deposition testimony Florida Politics acquired shows the son of a former baseball star saying Basabe propositioned him for three-way sex.
A jury found Basabe liable last month for harassment, battery and defamation of two former employees.
The plaintiffs in that case, former House aide Nicolas Frevola and ex-intern Jacob Cutbirth , described an environment of inappropriate comments, touching and abuse that prompted both to leave their jobs and later to sue.
A third man, Frevola’s friend, gave a sworn statement that Basabe pulled him into his bedroom at the lawmaker’s former Shiloh property while pushing for sex.
And a fourth, unidentified man testified last month that Basabe drugged and raped him in 2003.
Jackson Damon , a lobbyist who at the time worked as an aide to Montverde Republican Rep.
Taylor Yarkosky , also claimed Basabe propositioned him in a newly uncovered deposition Nov.
13, 2024.
He is the son of retired MLB player Johnny Damon .
Separate testimony shows Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections Alina Garcia , then a freshman lawmaker, alerted Basabe after hearing aides were discussing claims that he had flirted with Damon, but did not report the matter to House officials.
Jurors heard portions of his testimony in the trial, which concluded July 15 with a $450,000 verdict against Basabe.
Damon, a friend of Frevola’s, testified that during an outing with lawmakers and aides, possibly a dinner, Basabe suggested Damon should join him and his boyfriend, Renato Freitas , in the bedroom.
“I believe he said, ‘You should have a threesome with Renato and I,’” Damon said.
“I kind of ignored it.”
A snippet of sworn deposition testimony former House aide Jackson Damon gave in the sexual harassment trial of Rep.
Fabián Basabe.
Damon, who testified that he is straight, said he was “absolutely not” interested in the invitation.
He also recounted an earlier visit to Basabe’s apartment in mid-December 2022, where he said the lawmaker grabbed and tickled him.
“He, you know, was just, you know, being a little too touchy with me, and I, you know, was trying to get out of that, because it was uncomfortable,” Damon said.
“But at the same time, I don’t think he went, you know, too far.
I just got a little uncomfortable for that situation.”
Damon said he later read “in an article” that Basabe had accused him — rather than the other way around — of making unwelcome sexual advances.
Asked how that made him feel, he answered, “Stunned.”
More of Jackson Damon’s testimony.
Word of accusations against Basabe traveled.
Garcia, who served alongside Basabe in the House after both won election in 2022, testified in a Feb. 26, 2025, deposition that she heard Damon was saying Basabe had flirted with him.
Garcia, who described herself as Basabe’s friend, said she took the chatter directly to him.
“There was some gossip going on with the aides, and I told Rep.
Basabe,” she said.
In response, she said, Basabe told her there was “no truth to that allegation.”
Garcia said she did not report what she had heard to House leadership and that alerting the chamber’s human resources office “wasn’t warranted.”
She repeatedly characterized allegations against Basabe as rumors, including a 2024 report on a man who said Basabe drugged and sexually assaulted him in Los Angeles in 2003.
That man testified anonymously as “T.S.” last month, though Judge Lee Marsh struck his account from jury consideration.
“Something that happened 20 years ago and now is when it’s coming to light?”
Garcia said.
“I don’t know.
That seems a little odd to me.
You know, politicians are usually getting targeted.”
She also acknowledged hearing about Frevola’s claim that Basabe had slapped him in the face at a heavily attended post-inauguration event on Jan. 3, 2023, but that Basabe had insisted “that never really occurred.”
Sworn deposition testimony Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections Alina Garcia gave in February 2025 about her time as a state lawmaker and a rumor mill in which she said House aides participated, among other things.
Frevola and Cutbirth also accused Basabe of, among other things, slapping Frevola’s buttocks at an elementary school, groping and attempting to kiss Cutbirth, making repeated unwelcome sexual comments to both men, and defaming Frevola and his mother in a social media post.
Asked about their claims, Garcia first questioned their ages — “Are they adults or children?
Are they underage?” — before saying the accusations would “be concerning, absolutely, if it were true.”
Garcia’s deposition was not read into the record.
In a brief phone call Monday, she declined to comment on the jury verdict or whether her opinion had changed in light of it.
“I’m in the middle of an election,” she said.
“I really don’t have time for this hatchet job everyone’s trying to do on Basabe.”
Basabe — who represented himself in the trial after his former lawyer, Gus Harper , withdrew from the case in March 2025 — has since retained new counsel and asked for a new trial or reduced damages.
State records show Basabe’s campaign paid Harper’s law firms $73,674 over the past two election cycles as the case proceeded, with the last payment coming on the trial’s final day.
Since the verdict, multiple officials have rescinded their endorsements of Basabe’s re-election bid, and five of seven Miami Beach Commissioners have joined a growing chorus calling for his resignation.
A separate suit the plaintiffs brought against the House, which they accuse of insufficiently investigating their claims against Basabe, remains pending.
The two 2023 investigations by the House — one into the face-slapping incident, the other into Frevola and Cutbirth’s accusations of sexual harassment — resulted in an “ inconclusive ” finding and “ no evidence ” of wrongdoing, respectively.
In 2024, Basabe vowed to resign immediately if any of the allegations against him “ever prove true.”
In a statement he said he composed last week while he “was driving,” Basabe said he “will continue serving … while this legal process moves forward.”
Democrats Lucia Báez-Geller and Ashley Litwin Diego are competing in an Aug.
18 Primary for the right to challenge Basabe in HD 106 on Nov.
3.
Florida Politics contacted Damon by email for this story, but received no response by press time.
The post Sworn testimony: Another House aide, son of former MLB star, said Fabián Basabe propositioned him for sex appeared first on Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections.
Lobbying & Government. .
Speakers
3speakers43%attributed speech632writer words
Selected voice
80%flagged-word coverageAlina Garcia
274 attributed words57% of attributed speech65% writer coverage
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