Ex-mayor sexually ‘groomed’ underage foreign exchange student in California

A former mayor of a small California city has received the maximum sentence after “grooming” a foreign exchange student who had been living with him.

On Wednesday, Robert Bassett, 58, pled no contest to three felonies: unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor, oral copulation of a person under 18, and sexual penetration of a person under 18, court records show.

‘Bassett violated the trust she placed in him while she was in the United States, thousands of miles from her family.’

The victim in this case has been identified as a female “underage foreign exchange student” who lived in his home in 2023, when he was mayor of Biggs, California, according to a press release from the Butte County district attorney’s office. Biggs is a city of 2,000