Broward County Republicans are struggling to rid themselves of a board member who they recently discovered was once charged with attempted murder. From the Miami Herald:
Four months after 28-year-old Rupert Tarsey was elected secretary, party officials have found out the young philanthropist and supporter of President Donald Trump is really Rupert Ditsworth.
And a decade ago, the then-Beverly Hills teenager was charged with attempted murder in Los Angeles after hitting Harvard-Westlake School classmate Elizabeth Barcay over the head at least 40 times, splitting her skull open.
The Los Angeles Times covered the case in 2007, noting the two classmates barely even knew each other:
In a felony complaint filed in Van Nuys Superior Court, prosecutors charged Rupert Tumin Ditsworth of Beverly Hills with attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon for allegedly beating Elizabeth Barcay, 18, with a claw hammer. [...]
Ditsworth, who was not publicly identified until the court filing Wednesday, was taken by his parents to a psychiatric hospital for treatment immediately after the May 14 assault, which left Barcay with a broken leg and a broken nose, police said. Barcay's mother, Barbara Hayden, said in an earlier interview that her daughter was struck 40 times and that her scalp was split.
Late Wednesday, Hayden said she strongly supported the district attorney's decision to try her daughter's alleged attacker as an adult. "It was a completely unprovoked attack," she said. "He wasn't a boyfriend, and he was barely an acquaintance. The fact is, he is a danger not only to her but the community."
Initially charged as a juvenile because he was 17 years old, the case was moved to adult court when he turned 18 years old. Tarsey is refusing to resign from the Broward County GOP board and told the Miami Herald this information was released as retaliation:
“In the end, I pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor,” Tarsey said. “It’s not the charges that matter, it’s what happens in court.”
Tarsey, 6 feet 2 inches tall, claimed self-defense.
“This whole thing is in retaliation for my speaking out against Bob [Sutton],” Tarsey said. “It’s politics.”
Another ‘very fine’ supporter of Donald Trump and the GOP.