Marie A. Mattox, P. A.

Attorneys at Law
203 North Gadsden Street Tallahassee, FL 32301
Telephone: (850) 383-4800 ∙ Facsimile: (850) 383-4801
Marie A. Mattox Brian Finnerty
Jim Garrity Katherine Viker
Erika E. Goodman Adam Ellis
Elena Komsky Thomas L. Dickens, III
Cynthia Myers (of counsel)

November 27, 2023

The Florida House of Representatives

c/o Rep. Paul Renner
420 The Capitol
402 S. Monroe St.
Tallahassee, FL 32399-1300

Suite 1
4877 Palm Coast Parkway NW
Palm Coast, FL 32137-3677

Via Certified Mail ONLY

Return Receipt Number 9214 8901 9403 8340 1843 87

Re: Nicolas Frevola and Jacob Cutbirth v. Florida House of Representatives

Dear Speaker Renner:

This letter is your notice that our firm represents Nicolas Frevola and Jacob Cutbirth with
regard to their claims against you, and is intended, pursuant to Chapter 768, Florida Statutes, as
formal Notice of Intent to Initiate Litigation against the Florida House of Representatives (“the
House”) for fraud; abuse of process; negligent misrepresentation; defamation, including but not
limited to invasion of privacy for releasing a fraudulent report to the public which places our clients
in a false light before the public; negligent infliction of emotional distress; intentional infliction of
emotional distress; and for any other civil claim available to them against the Florida House.

The facts comprising the potential causes of action include but are not limited to the
following: On January 3, 2023, Rep. Fabian Basabe, while intoxicated and in attendance at a social
event at the Southern Lobbying Group, slapped his aide, Nicolas Frevola, across the face and told
him to stand in the corner. Due to the fact that Rep. Basabe had required Mr. Frevola to sign a
nondisclosure agreement, Mr. Frevola was unsure if he could legally report the battery to the
House’s Human Resources department, or to law enforcement.

However, as others were in attendance and witnessed and/or heard the slap, word began to
get out regarding the battery. After Sen. Jason Pizzo requested a meeting with Mr. Frevola and his
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mother, Janet Frevola, who worked in the House’s general counsel’s office, the matter was
officially reported to the HR department, on more than one occasion.

Eventually the House leadership hired the employment defense firm of Allen Norton and
Blue to conduct an investigation, and attorneys within that firm interviewed Mr. Frevola, Ms.
Frevola, and others, including Rep. Josie Tomkow, whom Mr. Frevola identified as another
potential witness. Recently obtained notes generated by Allen Norton and Blue during the
interviews reflect that Rep. Tomkow told the investigators that, while she did not see the slap
because it was a “crowded room” and she was engaged in her own conversation, she “did hear a
noise, looked up and what [she observed] led [her] to believe [that Rep. Basabe] did [slap Mr.
Frevola].” She explained that she was speaking to her mother, heard the noise, “looked up and saw
Fabian’s hand near Nic[k]’s face.” She further stated that she held this belief that Rep. Basabe
slapped Mr. Frevola because Rep. Basabe’s “hand was near [Mr. Frevola],” only a “few inches”
away from Mr. Frevola’s face. Also very important was the fact that Rep. Tomkow explained that
her mother also believed that Rep. Basabe had slapped Mr. Frevola, and that her mother even went
over to Mr. Frevola to check on him.

The notes further indicate that Allen Norton and Blue failed to interview Rep. Tomkow’s
mother about the slapping and her concern for Mr. Frevola’s wellbeing, even though she was also
identified as an eyewitness.

Allen Norton and Blue’s notes further reflect that Mr. Frevola reported during his interview
that Rep. Basabe was sexually harassing him, and that he expressly identified undersigned counsel
as the attorney for one of three other victims whom Rep. Basabe had sexually harassed; i.e., Jacob
Cutbirth. Despite this, Allen Norton and Blue never contacted undersigned counsel for additional
information on Rep. Basabe’s sexual harassment, nor interviewed the two other harassment
victims, one of whom is also a House aide, with both victims being peers of Mr. Frevola and having
been asked to sign Rep. Basabe’s nondisclosure agreement. Furthermore, the notes demonstrate
that Rep. Basabe provided a statement to Allen Norton and Blue generally denying his sexual
advances upon Mr. Frevola, and instead claiming that Mr. Frevola, a straight male, actually
engaged sexual advances upon him (even remarkably alleging, in regard to the slapping, that he,
i.e., Rep. Basabe, “MAY (sic) have made a defensive move” on January 3rd, when he slapped Mr.
Frevola, because Mr. Frevola supposedly initiated an “inappropriate touching” with Rep. Basabe).

Although Rep. Tomkow reported that she and her mother believed that Rep. Basabe had
slapped Mr. Frevola, when the House released the Allen Norton and Blue investigation to the
public, it contained no mention of Rep. Tomkow’s statement, at all. Furthermore, the report stated
that the allegation regarding the slapping was “inconclusive,” despite this eyewitness testimony,
which was, other than Mr. Frevola’s statement and Rep. Basabe’s admission that he may have
slapped Mr. Frevola, the best evidence that there was that the slapping had indeed happened.

Despite the fact that Mr. Frevola’s allegations of sexual harassment were obviously
reported to Allen Norton and Blue during the investigation, a July 7, 2023, CBS News Miami
article reported that Rep. Paul Renner told journalist Jim Defede, “This new allegation was brought
forward after the completion of an investigation regarding an alleged physical altercation (sic)
between Rep. Basabe and a Florida House employee, which included interviews of the
complainant’s witnesses, and produced inconclusive findings.”
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 Thereafter, as to the sexual harassment allegations, the House hired Marlene Quintana of
Gray Robinson--another employment defense firm which also conducts lobbying before the
Florida Legislature, with Ms. Quintana proudly proclaiming on her profile on the firm’s website
that she, herself, is a registered lobbyist, and moreover, a Tampa Bay Times investigation from
December 2022 reported that Gray Robinson has received at least $5.2 million to represent Gov.
DeSantis in a large number cases he has generated due to his policies and actions being challenged
in courts.

Thus, as with Allen Norton and Blue, Ms. Quintana and Gray Robinson clearly had a stake
in the outcome of the report, which stands in stark violation of the number one tenet of best
practices in employment investigations.

Among numerous errors and misleading statements in Ms. Quintana’s report, which was
also released to the public, is the glaring omission from it of the strongest piece of evidence
regarding Rep. Basabe’s sexual harassment--the March 7, 2023, text message from Mr. Cutbirth
to two of his friends stating to them, on the day that he decided that he could no longer put up with
Rep. Basabe’s ongoing and pervasive sexual harassment of him and that he could no longer be in
the actual physical presence of Rep. Basabe for this reason: “I quit the capital, kinda. I said I’ll
help with their newsletter if that means I can keep the position on my resume but I won’t be going
to the capital anymore and will be doing any [work] from home to avoid being sexually harassed.”

Mr. Cutbirth reported the existence of this text message to Ms. Quintana during his
interview with her, and on August 22, 2023, with the investigation still open, undersigned counsel
emailed this text message (along with other documentary evidence and the names of contemporary
witnesses with whom Mr. Cutbirth had discussed Rep. Basabe’s sexual harassment of him) to Ms.
Quintana.

Despite this, on November 6, 2023, Ms. Quintana’s report was released, and it is sans any
mention whatsoever of the March 7, 2023, text message, as well as any interviews with
contemporary witnesses--approximately 7 or 8--with whom Mr. Cutbirth contemporaneously
discussed that Rep. Basabe was sexually harassing him. While Ms. Quintana’s report contains
several attached documents, the March 3, 2023, text message is not one of those documents.

Despite this, the House released this false, misleading, and skewed report to the public,
which states in the second to last final paragraph,

After reviewing all of the relevant documentation, and assessing all of the
information provided to me by the witnesses, I do not find any evidence, direct or
circumstantial, to substantiate the allegations in the Relevant Complaints. My
investigation could not confirm Mr. Frevola or Mr. Cutbirth’s version of events,
other than both reporting similar independently made comments from
Representative Basabe about sex being a sport for men,[1] and both being shown

1This is a false representation of what both Mr. Frevola and Mr. Cutbirth told Ms. Quintana during
her interviews; both told Ms. Quintana that Rep. Basabe told them that they should try “sport
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 the photo on Rep. Basabe’s phone of the man in a bikini. [2]

On November 10, 2023, undersigned counsel emailed to the House’s general counsel,
David Axelman, and Rep. Paul Renner, the March 3, 2023, text message, so there is no question
that the House is in possession of it. Yet, the House did nothing to change what it had released to
the public.

In response to this false and misleading sham report, Rep. Basabe has made statements to
the public claiming that, as with the Allen Norton and Blue investigation, he has been
“exonerated,” and he has continued his campaign to slander Mr. Frevola and Mr. Cutbirth.

It is abundantly clear that the House hired two employment law firms, with the second also
engaging in lobbying before the House, as well as engaging in substantial legal work for the
Republican party, with both standing to benefit from conducting false and misleading
“investigations” to help hide Rep. Basabe’s batteries upon and sexual harassment of Mr. Frevola
and Mr. Cutbirth, thus constituting an abuse of process, and that the House released two fraudulent
reports to the public, all in an effort to cover up the actions of a fellow Republican, Rep. Fabian
Basabe.

Mr. Frevola’s date of birth is July 20, 1997, and Mr. Cutbirth’s is March 19, 1999.

This notice is given under section 768.28, Florida Statutes, and I specifically refer to your
obligations thereunder in responding to this correspondence, and in preserving any evidence
related to Mr. Frevola’s and Mr. Cutbirth’s claims as presented herein, including but not
limited to emails, video recordings, audio recordings, and all other documentary or physical
evidence pertaining to the allegations contained herein. Please advise whether more detail is
needed to ensure your prompt investigation of the matter raised in this letter.

Very truly yours,

Cynthia A. Myers

fucking with men.” Neither one of them told her that Rep. Basabe had stated to them that “sex
[was] a sport for men.”
2 This is another false representation of what both Mr. Frevola and Mr. Cutbirth told Ms. Quintana

during her interviews of them; both told Ms. Quintana that the photo on his phone which Rep.
Basabe showed them was of a naked man. They made no mention of the man wearing a bikini, at
all. Yet, in one of the paragraphs pertaining to Mr. Cutbirth’s interview, Ms. Quintana claimed that
he told her that the man was wearing a bikini, when he did not. Further, both told Ms. Quintana
that the naked man was shown to them while Rep. Basabe was engaging in another of his talks to
them encouraging them to try sport fucking with men. In the second to last paragraph of the report,
it claims that both stated they were shown a man in a bikini, although a review of Mr. Frevola’s
statement during the interview reflects that he stated the man was naked, which is accurate as to
what he stated to Ms. Quintana. Furthermore, the report states that it was Rep. Basabe who claimed
that the photo was of a man in a bikini.
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 Cynthia A. Myers, Esq.

cc: Mr. Nicolas Frevola

Mr. Jacob Cutbirth

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