Child sex-abuse case dropped against ex-University Place school employee due to death
A 59-year-old former employee of University Place School District who was accused of sexually abusing at least eight boys has died, according to prosecutors, and the case against him has been dismissed.
Michael Joseph Basse faced 20 counts of child rape and child molestation in Pierce County Superior Court for numerous alleged sexual interactions with boys between the ages of 9 and 15. Basse was employed by the University Place School District from 2007 to 2016, and prosecutors wrote in charging documents that he met two of his victims as a substitute nurse for the district’s Sunset Primary School.
Attorney Loren Cochran, who represented some of the alleged victims, said in an email to The News Tribune that Basse died by suicide. Basse was living in Port Orchard, and the Kitsap County Medical Examiner’s office said he died Nov. 20. His cause and manner of death were pending further investigation Monday, Nov. 27. Court records show his case was dismissed Nov. 21.
Basse was also charged in Grays Harbor County with child rape and molestation, but according to court records, the case has yet to be dismissed. Prosecutors there accused Basse of having sex with three school-age boys at a house near Pacific Beach, Washington. The boys were Pierce County residents, and it’s unclear whether they are different victims from the eight mentioned in the Pierce County case.
Police arrested Basse at his Port Orchard home in April with the assistance of a SWAT team, according to the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department. He pleaded not guilty at arraignment April 24, and he posted a $250,000 bail bond days later. He was arrested on the Grays Harbor County charges when he returned to court for a hearing in May, and he was released on his own recognizance. Basse also pleaded not guilty in that case.
Cochran said it was his understanding that Basse was set to change his plea to guilty, but he took his own life before that happened. Basse’s defense attorney, Michael Stewart, wouldn’t comment on the matter in a brief phone call, citing attorney-client privilege.
Basse’s family and closest friends are devastated by his death, Stewart said, and he said they asked that their privacy be respected.
“For his family, he was a dedicated family man. They were proud of his service to the country,” Stewart said. “His closest friends and family are just gutted.”
Basse was also an instructor at a jiu-jitsu dojo in Tacoma’s North End, Seibukan Jujutsu of Washington, where some of the abuse reportedly occurred. Cochran has said Basse threatened to harm the boys if anyone talked about it, and that the victims knew Basse’s background in martial arts and the U.S. Marine Corps meant he was trained to cause physical harm.
One such victim said he met Basse through his mother, who was a nurse at Sunset Primary School, according to the declaration for determination of probable cause. The boy told detectives he and Basse began exchanging inappropriate text messages and photos, and, when he was 12, he helped the defendant with yard work at his house. A sexual interaction briefly occurred inside before the boy demanded that Basse stop.
“[The victim] later told Basse he would take legal action if Basse continued to push him into performing sexual acts,” prosecutors wrote in the charging document. “Basse then threatened [the victim] stating he would hurt him if he told anyone.”
University Place School District Superintendent Jeff Chamberlin previously told The News Tribune that Basse worked as a substitute classroom assistant and a health room paraeducator in multiple schools while he was employed there.
Basse was hired after clearing standard background checks, Chamberlin said, and at the time he was the parent of a child in the district. In 2016, Basse was fired after University Place police notified the district in July that a parent made a complaint to them. Charging documents state the family of one alleged victim reported inappropriate messages from Basse that year, and the father of a 15-year-old girl made a similar report to law enforcement.
Investigations by police and the school district did not find any reports of inappropriate touching or physical sexual abuse, Chamberlin said.
The abuse Basse allegedly inflicted spanned the entirety of his employment in the University Place School District, court records show, but the documents don’t specify where he met most of the victims.
One victim allegedly told investigators Basse started touching him in 5th or 6th grade and that from age 11 to 15, the man sent him nude photographs and asked the boy to send back sexual images of himself.
Another said he was friends with Basse’s son, and that Basse took on a mentor role for him, eventually inviting him to train with him in jiu-jitsu before the abuse began. The boy’s brother was also sexually abused by Basse, according to court records, and the first contact reportedly occurred in Basse’s truck near the University of Puget Sound when the boy was 9 years old.
The alleged abuse occurred in a variety of settings, including at a residence in University Place, a YMCA in Gig Harbor, a home near Seabrook, Washington, and at Penrose State Park on the Kitsap Peninsula as part of a jiu-jitsu camp trip. For most victims, records state, the abuse happened over the course of years, and for some, contact with Basse sometimes occurred as often as daily or weekly. Most of the victims are now in their 20s.
This story was originally published November 28, 2023 at 5:00 AM.
