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Alleged pimp Basa pleads guilty
Annette N. Basa, a 40-year-old woman accused of recruiting and enticing two minor girls to engage in commercial sex acts, has pleaded guilty.
At a change of plea hearing late Thursday afternoon, Basa, who appeared with court-appointed counsel Steven Pixley, pleaded guilty to count one of the indictment charging her with sex trafficking of children.
Before entering her guilty plea, Manglona told Basa that the offense she would plead guilty to has the lowest prison term of 10 years and a maximum of life imprisonment.
Manglona accepted the plea agreement and Basa’s guilty plea.
Sentencing will be on June 6, 2014.
According to the plea deal, from April 1, 2013 to July 16, 2013, Basa knowingly recruited and enticed a 15-year-old girl to have sex for pay.
Using a cell phone, Basa arranged meetings with adult men and the girl, and then drove the girl to different sites for the purpose of having those men have sex with her.
Basa provided condoms to the girl for those meetings. She received money and/or quantities of methamphetamine or “ice” as payment from those men.
The indictment charged Basa and co-defendant Richard S. Benavente of engaging in sexual exploitation and sex trafficking of two minor girls.
According to the indictment, Benavente, a firefighter, had sex with the two girls and recorded the incident using a cell phone. This allegedly happened twice.
The indictment alleged that on April 1, 2013, Basa recruited and enticed the two minors to engage in “commercial sex act.”
A Federal Bureau of Investigation special agent alleged that Benavente took videos of himself having sex with two 15-year-old girls. Basa allegedly offered the girls to the firefighter in exchange for methamphetamine or “ice” and an unspecified amount of cash.
Benavente recently pleaded guilty.
Former acting CNMI Division of Fish and Wildlife director Raymond Borja Roberto is also facing two charges in the superseding indictment that accused him of paying money for sex with the two girls. He pleaded not guilty. (Ferdie de la Torre)
