Reports: Florida GOP leader once beat female classmate with claw hammer until it broke

BROWARD COUNTY, Fla. — Florida GOP officials find themselves in an unusual position after they learned that a newly elected member of the Broward County executive board was once charged with attempted murder in connection with the brutal claw hammer attack of a female classmate at his California prep school.

Rupert Tarsey, 28, was elected secretary of the Broward County GOP chapter four months ago, according to the Miami Herald. His new position came into question after a fellow member made the discovery earlier this month.

That member informed Broward County GOP chairman Bob Sutton about Tarsey’s past over the Labor Day weekend.

"We were blindsided," Sutton told the Herald. "He's a member of the Knights of Columbus, for Christ's sake. And he came highly recommended by the former chair. We had no idea what his background is.

“We want him out, but he is refusing to resign. He deceived us. It looks like he even used a reputation management firm to make sure we wouldn’t find out who he is.”

Tarsey, who volunteered on President Donald Trump’s campaign, admitted that he has no intention of resigning his post.

“Why should I resign?” Tarsey asked. “I did nothing wrong, and I was elected. This is just party politics.”

Sutton suspended Tarsey from party functions last week.

Tarsey's real name is Rupert Ditsworth, the Herald reported. He changed his name to Tarsey, his mother's maiden name, when he moved to Fort Lauderdale two years after the 2007 incident, the newspaper said.

A Los Angeles Times story reported that Tarsey, then 17, was accused of attacking Elizabeth Barcay, an 18-year-old classmate at Harvard-Westlake School in L.A., on May 14, 2007, with a claw hammer, hitting her at least 40 times and splitting open her head. Barcay's mother, Barbara Hayden, told the Times that her daughter also suffered a shattered leg and a broken nose in the attack.

Tarsey's parents admitted him to a psychiatric hospital immediately after the assault, the Times reported. He was initially charged as a juvenile with both attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon.

The juvenile case was dropped, and he was rearrested in June 2007, the day after his 18th birthday, so he could be tried as an adult.

Prosecutors at the time told the Chronicle, the online newspaper of Harvard-Westlake School, that Tarsey was tried as an adult because of the seriousness of the injuries suffered by the victim. If convicted of the charges, he faced a possible life sentence.

The Times reported that the attack started after Tarsey invited Barcay to ride with him to a juice bar after a big Advanced Placement exam at school. After drinking smoothies and returning to his Jaguar, he grabbed a backpack from the rear seat and placed it between his legs, according to Barcay.

Barcay told police that instead of returning to school, Tarsey parked in a residential neighborhood in Studio City, not far from campus. Appearing anxious, she said he told her he was contemplating suicide.

When she urged him to return to school to seek help from a counselor, she said he told her, "It isn't going to happen that way," the Times reported.

Telling her he wasn’t going to kill himself alone, he pulled a claw hammer from his backpack and attacked her, the newspaper said.

A witness walking nearby saw the struggle inside the Jaguar and called 911, the newspaper said.

Tarsey got out of the car, pulled open the passenger-side door and pulled Barcay out by her hair, the Times said. He continued hitting her with the hammer until the tool broke.

He then choked her until she bit his finger, the Times reported. That's when Tarsey got back behind the wheel and drove off.

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Tarsey ultimately claimed self-defense in the case.

"In the end, I pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor," Tarsey told the Herald. "It's not the charges that matter, it's what happens in court."

He argued that he did not change his name to hide who he was, but did so after his parents divorced. He said he is estranged from his father.

After moving to Florida, Tarsey went to college and earned an MBA from Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale. He is now married with two children and a third on the way.

Barcay, who went to prom and graduation in a wheelchair following the attack, went on to study at Williams College. Her alumni information shows that she went on to earn a master's degree in education from Harvard University's Graduate School of Education.

She is now an elementary school teacher in the Boston area.

Cox Media Group