Former Mayor Sentenced for Crimes Against Exchange Student
A former mayor from a small California town has been sentenced to the maximum penalty after being found guilty of grooming a foreign exchange student who stayed with him.
On Wednesday, 58-year-old Robert Bassett entered a no contest plea to three felony charges: engaging in unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor, oral copulation of a minor, and sexual penetration of a minor, according to court documents.
It was revealed that the victim in this case was a female foreign exchange student who lived in his home in 2023, during Bassett’s term as the mayor of Biggs, a small community located around 65 miles north of Sacramento. The Butte County district attorney’s office shared this information in a press release.
“Bassett groomed the victim for several months prior to engaging in illegal acts,” the press release noted.
Bassett’s arrest occurred in July after police in Gridley spent months looking into allegations of a sexual relationship between him and the girl, who was 17 at the time she stayed with him. The district attorney’s office reported that the authorities contacted the young woman in her home country, which has not been disclosed. She mentioned having “several sexual encounters” with Bassett while living in his residence.
During the court proceedings, the prosecutor shared a statement from the victim, which expressed the ongoing pain and suffering she continues to endure, stating that “Bassett violated the trust she placed in him while she was in the United States, far away from her family.”
Despite a recommendation from the probation department for a lighter sentence, Butte County Superior Court Judge Michael Deems sentenced Bassett to four years and four months in prison. The judge emphasized the victim’s vulnerability, Bassett’s grooming pattern, and the breach of trust as factors that warranted the maximum sentence. Furthermore, Bassett will be required to register as a sex offender for the next ten years following his release.
The attorney representing Bassett did not respond to requests for comment.
Bassett joined the Biggs City Council in 2018 and served as mayor from 2022 until 2024. Although he was renominated for another term, he did not garner enough votes. He remained a council member but resigned in 2025 amidst allegations of extortion, which an independent investigation later determined were unsubstantiated.
