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Basa appeals her 17.5-year prison term for sex trafficking
Annette Nakatsukasa Basa is appealing her 17.5-year prison term for sex trafficking of children to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Attorney Steven Pixley, court-appointed counsel for the 36-year-old Basa, filed yesterday a notice of appeal in the U.S. District Court for the NMI.
Pixley said Basa will appeal to the Ninth Circuit the court’s Dec. 5, 2014 judgment and will seek to reverse the 17.5-year prison sentence the court slapped against her.
The notice of appeal contained no other details.
At the Dec. 5 sentencing, U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona ordered that after serving the 17.5 years in prison, Basa will be placed on five years of supervised release.
Manglona also ordered Basa, among other things, to undergo a mental health assessment and complete any treatment while in federal prison custody.
In Basa’s sentencing memorandum, Pixley claimed that the defendant was sexually abused by some police officers when she was young and that the abuse left her with a variety of psychological problems.
Last February, Basa pleaded guilty to a count of sex trafficking of children.
According to the plea deal, Basa recruited, enticed, and harbored a 15-year-old girl to engage in commercial sex acts from April 1, 2013, to July 16, 2013.
Using a cell phone, Basa arranged meetings with adult men and the girl, and then drove the girl to meeting sites for the purpose of having her have sex with those men.
Basa gave the girl condoms for those meetings. In exchange, Basa received money or methamphetamine or “ice” from the men.
The indictment charged Basa and former firefighter Richard S. Benavente of engaging in sexual exploitation and sex trafficking of two minors.
Benavente has already pleaded guilty.
