Baez Geller says it's time to turn the page on Fabian Basabe and his scandals
Lucia Baez Geller, the former Miami-Dade School Board member who is running to unseat Republican Fabian Basabe in House District 106, says it is time for the community to move on from the myriad scandals surrounding her opponent.
"People really want someone who's going to be focused on their issues right now," she told CBS Miami's Jim DeFede during Sunday's edition of Facing South Florida. "There are a number of situations in our district where people are being priced out of their homes. Seniors have to choose between medicine and paying their mortgages. So, they need someone that's going be focused their issues, not on their own legal woes."
And Fabian Basabe is certainly beset by legal woes.
In July, a jury in Tallahassee found the Republican state representative liable for sexually harassing two of his male staffers, after they claimed he made unwanted sexual advances on them, showed them pictures of naked men, and, in the case of the office intern, encouraged him to leave his fiancé and start having sex with men instead.
The jury also found him liable for battery and defamation and ordered Basabe to pay the young men $450,000. During the trial, another man testified under oath that Basabe had drugged and raped him more than twenty years ago.
The man did not report the alleged assault at the time and only came forward years later, reporting it to authorities in Los Angeles. Basabe has never been charged with rape, and the L.A. District Attorney closed its review of the case last year.
Basabe steadfastly denied sexually assaulting the man. Last month, in a lengthy and somewhat bizarre essay to Miami New Times, Basabe appeared to argue he is too attractive to be a rapist.
"And seriously, look at me," he wrote. "Open your eyes and look at me. I don't need to rape shit."
The sordid life of Fabian Basabe at CBS Miami began to be covered three years ago. A former reality TV star, Basabe was best known for his boorish and obnoxious behavior around South Beach. But after marrying the heiress of a lingerie fortune, Basabe used his wealth to get elected to the Florida House in 2022.
He ran as a supporter of gay rights, but ended up voting for all of DeSantis's culture war attacks on gays and lesbians.
He claimed to be pro-choice but then hid in his office when the House voted to outlaw abortions in Florida after six weeks.
And he co-sponsored a highly controversial bill known as Live Local that gave developers free rein to build in historic neighborhoods, such as those on Miami Beach, without any local input or oversight.
When the two staffers first went public with their claims of sexual harassment against Basabe, he posted a video on social media vowing to resign if the claims were ever proven.
"This video message is my verbal contract to you. Not just you, but also my family, my friends, and my entire community," Basabe said in a video posted to his YouTube channel. "Should any of these allegations ever prove true against me at any point in the future, I would resign on the spot and be held accountable."
But after the jury verdict, Basabe refused to resign. He continues to maintain that he didn't do anything wrong and that his only mistake was being naïve enough in the American judicial system to represent himself in his sexual harassment trial.
He is appealing the jury verdict.
CBS Miami offered to tape an interview with Basabe for Sunday's show, but he refused, saying he would only appear live. Facing South Florida is taped in advance.
Asked if she thought the jury verdict against Basabe was disqualifying, Baez Geller said: "First of all, I find it disqualifying that he won't take accountability. And he said he would resign, and now he's making excuses."
She said Basabe was "not somebody that we can trust, essentially a liar."
"I've also had the opportunity to meet one of his victims and get to know him," Baez Geller said. "And I could see that [Basabe] has done real damage to a real human being. And so to be able to deny that and go out and act as if he's done nothing is really shameful, and I believe that our district deserves much better than that."