Man charged in UP abuse case threatened kids to keep them quiet, victims’ attorney says
A former University Place School District employee has been charged with multiple counts of child rape for sexual interactions he allegedly had with at least six children.
Michael Joseph Basse, 59, was charged Monday in Pierce County Superior Court with four counts of first-degree rape of a child, four counts of first-degree child molestation, three counts of third-degree rape of a child, second-degree rape of a child and second-degree child molestation.
Pleas of not guilty were entered on Basse’s behalf at arraignment Monday afternoon. Pro tem Judge Ronald Culpepper set bail at $250,000. Basse was ordered to have no contact with minors and not be on school grounds or playgrounds. As of Tuesday morning, he remained in custody at Pierce County Jail.
Cole Douglas, an attorney representing three alleged victims, said Tuesday that one survivor of Basse’s alleged abuse addressed the court during arraignment to emphasize the importance of keeping the defendant in custody. Douglas, who is working with attorneys Loren Cochran and Tiffany Wilke, said Basse threatened to use violence if anyone talked about what happened. Basse has a military background and martial arts training, the attorney said, and the victims knew he was trained to be able to cause physical harm.
“It’s pretty egregious stuff that happened,” Douglas said.
Basse was arrested at his Port Orchard home Friday. The Sheriff’s Department said a SWAT team was used because Basse is known to possess numerous firearms.
The News Tribune was not able to reach Basse’s lawyer for comment. According to court records, he is represented by an attorney from the Department of Assigned Counsel. A pretrial services screening showed the defendant does not have any criminal convictions.
Employment in University Place schools
Basse was employed by the UP school district from 2007 to 2016. He worked as a substitute classroom assistant and a health room paraeducator in multiple schools filling in for absent employees, Superintendent Jeff Chamberlin told The News Tribune. In an email, Chamberlin said Basse was hired after he cleared standard background checks, and at the time, was the parent of a child in the district.
He worked part time and was never a classroom teacher, Chamberlin said. As a substitute, the hours Basse worked varied widely each year from a low of 39.5 hours in the 2007-2008 school year to a high of 412.5 hours in 2015-2016. Chamberlin said the defendant did not coach for the school district.
Basse was fired in 2016 after University Place police notified the district in July that a parent made a complaint to them, Chamberlin said. 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.
“Mr. Basse was immediately removed from our substitute list until an investigation was completed and was subsequently formally separated from the district,” Chamberlin wrote. “Neither our investigation, nor the investigation conducted by police involved any reports of inappropriate touching or physical sexual abuse.”
Prosecutors wrote in charging papers that Basse also was an instructor at a jiu-jitsu school in Tacoma, Seibukan Jujutsu of Washington. Sheriff’s Department deputies also said he coached youth baseball.
Basse was listed as an instructor on the dojo’s website up until his arrest last week, according to Douglas. The attorney shared an image with The News Tribune that showed Basse listed on the website. According to the bio, Basse was a 5th-degree black belt — outranked only by the chief instructor — and served for more than 20 years in the U.S. Marine Corps and had attained experience in over 12 styles of martial arts. The bio said he taught adults and teenagers.
The chief instructor for the dojo did not return phone calls requesting comment. Basse’s employment history since 2016 is unclear. His pretrial services screening said he is retired.
Court documents do not specify where Basse met the alleged victims.
Allegations of years-long abuse
The abuse Basse allegedly inflicted spanned the entirety of his employment in the University Place School District, court records show. 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. Records state the alleged abuse occurred in a variety of settings, including in Basse’s truck, 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.
The six people allegedly abused by Basse were boys, according to charging documents, who ranged in age from 9 to 15. 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.
Douglas said he and the other attorneys representing victims continue to investigate the extent of Basse’s alleged abuse, and he encouraged anyone who encountered the defendant on a similar level to reach out to them.
“With the survivors who’ve been reaching out to us, we want to try to get them answers,” Douglas said. “To why this happened, who could have prevented it, who was in charge of ensuring these children’s safety from a predator like this who is obviously calculated, knows what they’re doing and had been doing it for a long time.”
Douglas said he wasn’t ready to discuss whether litigation would be brought against the school district. He said he and the other attorneys are exploring options. Douglas said the survivors deserve answers, and civil litigation is one of the only means to get them.
