Judge sides with Rep. Amesty, dismissing defamation lawsuit

A county judge closed an unusual defamation lawsuit against state Rep. Carolina Amesty last month, issuing a judgment in the Republican lawmaker’s favor.

The suit was filed in Leon County by a former legislative aide, Nicolas Frevola, in September. Frevola, who worked for another lawmaker, claimed Amesty falsely accused him of trying to run her over with a car in 2022 as she and Frevola’s mother vied for the Republican party’s nomination to represent an Orlando-area district.

Frevola expanded on his initial complaint in March, accusing Amesty of claiming his mother, Janet Frevola, defrauded Social Security.

But Circuit Judge Lee Marsh signed an order on Tuesday, declaring the matter over and siding with Amesty.

Amesty and her attorney, Paul Thanasides, did not respond to an email seeking comment about the matter. Amesty and Thanasides have previously denied the allegations outlined in the suit.

Frevola’s attorney, Cindy Myers, however, said Thursday that she plans to ask for a rehearing and said she will appeal the decision, if necessary.

“Rep. Amesty might think this is over and she has prevailed, but we are not done,” Myers said.

Frevola, 26, is no longer working for the Florida House. But during the 2022 campaign, he was an aide to former state Rep. Scott Plakon, and the suit alleged that Plakon called to tell him that Amesty had demanded that Plakon fire Frevola for “engaging in inappropriate actions” toward her and her campaign staff. Plakon said in March that Amesty did not urge him to fire Frevola.

Nicolas Frevola also has lawsuits outstanding against another lawmaker, Republican Rep. Fabian Basabe of Miami Beach, and Tracy Caruso, who writes for a right-wing website and is the wife of Republican State Rep. Mike Caruso of Delray Beach.

Frevola, who also served as an aide for Basabe, and Jacob Cutbirth, a former intern in Basabe’s office, sued Basabe last July, accusing him of sexual harassment, unwanted touching, making lewd comments, showing them a photo of a naked man on his phone and slapping Frevola.

Basabe has denied the accusations leveled against him by Frevola. Writing on X, formerly Twitter, Basabe said that a House investigation into the alleged slapping incident had been concluded “rightly in my favor.”

But the investigation by an outside law firm was “inconclusive,” according to the Miami New Times, because of conflicting accounts and “a lack of corroborating witnesses.”

Frevola and Cutbirth sued Caruso and Jolt Media in February for defamation over an article the website published in November that said Basabe had “won his case.”

anmartin@orlandosentinel.com