Rupert Tarsey was elected Secretary of the Broward County Executive Committee. He had worked hard on Trump’s election, registering Republican voters in a liberal county. But he was not who he seemed to be.
He was born Rupert Ditsworth. His family was wealthy and he attended an exclusive prep school near his home in Beverly Hills. One day he invited another student, Elizabeth Barcay, to eat lunch in his Jaguar. He confessed he was feeling suicidal and when she suggested seeking counseling he beat her with a hammer until it broke and then he tried to strangle her. There were forty wounds from the beating. Incredibly, she bit him, broke free, ran away, before collapsing in someone’s yard. She survived. He was charged with attempted murder and two counts of assault with a deadly weapon.
But he never spent time in jaijl. Instead, the DA decided since he was young (17) what he really needed was counseling and jail would serve no purpose. His family sent him for inpatient therapy while their lawyers got a plea deal where he pleaded guilty to one count of assault with a deadly weapon and got six years probation. Even that was too much, and probation was terminated a year early. Then the lawyers got his felony downgraded to a misdemeanor.
In arguing for a lesser charge, his lawyers asserted that Barcay screamed which precipitated the attack because he was autistic and sensitive to noise. When his crime was exposed in Florida, he claimed Barcay attacked him and he beat her with a hammer at least forty times until it broke in self defense.
While the Broward County Chair wanted him gone, the local committee voted not to unseat him. So he stayed.
- New York Daily News: Republicans say man who attacked woman with hammer can keep post
- LA Times: As a teen he savagely beat a classmate. The attack was forgotten until he went into politics.
06 Dec 2017