Plea deal may keep Miami-Dade man accused of child sex crimes off registry. Victim perturbed

For a decade, counselor Keisha Etienne has guided abused children in processing their trauma. But she, too, has reckoned with the years of sexual assault she experienced as a child.

Etienne remembers being 9-years-old the first time she was assaulted by her aunt’s boyfriend. The cycle of abuse didn’t end for close to a decade — and she didn’t open up about it until she was in her 30s.

In 2019, Etienne, now 36, came forward to Miami-Dade police. That same year, Albert Bassett, now 90, was charged with four counts of sexual battery on a minor and three counts of lewd and lascivious conduct.

On Tuesday, almost five years after his arrest, Bassett is expected to accept a plea deal before Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Alberto Milian. Etienne, however, is frustrated by the offer, which her attorneys have likened to a slap on the wrist.

Under the agreement, negotiated by Bassett’s defense team and approved by the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office, Bassett would plead guilty to four counts of aggravated child abuse and be ordered to complete 10 years probation and stay away from the victim, according to attorney Aaron Karger. Etienne hired Karger in February 2023 after feeling like she was being disregarded throughout the judicial process.

According to Karger, Chief Assistant State Attorney Kathleen Hoague, in conversations about the plea deal, said a jury could interpret Bassett’s payments for braces and other expenses from Etienne’s childhood as “reparations.” Hoague, he said, also expressed that it would be “too much of a burden” to make Bassett move from his North Miami home, as he would be required to by law if he were a registered sex offender. Public records indicate Bassett lives within a mile radius of several schools.

“As this is an open, active criminal case, presently before the court, it would be inappropriate for the [Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office] to comment,” a spokesperson told the Miami Herald on Monday morning.

In a statement, defense attorney Dianne Caramés backed the plea agreement and suggested that Etienne turned to the media in “a strategic move rather than a pursuit of justice.”

“This case, which has been pending for nearly five years, has received thorough scrutiny from the State Attorney’s Office,” Caramés said. “The issue extends beyond Mr. Bassett’s age; it centers on the conveniently timed report of Ms. Etienne, which surfaced two decades after the alleged abuse and soon after he stopped providing her financial support. The plea offer is substantiated by evidence, taking into account the delayed reporting and inconsistencies in Ms. Etienne’s narrative.”

A slap on the wrist?

Etienne said the first prosecutor assigned to her case involved her in talks about a possible plea agreement, frequently stayed in touch with her and supported her through the process. The offer discussed, she said, would have included Bassett pleading guilty to the current charges and would have ordered him to register as a sex offender, attend sex offender therapy and be barred from unsupervised contact with minors.

In late 2020, however, she was assigned to a new prosecutor — and quickly felt like she wasn’t being considered at the negotiation table. In discussions about the plea, the state attorney’s office would reference Bassett’s age.

“I want him to admit his wrong, to apologize, to be charged and to register as a sex offender,” she said. “Just imagine this 90-year-old living next to your family.”

For Etienne, bringing up Bassett’s age is just an excuse. She believes the same thing would happen if he were younger — and that her age and the racial undertones in the case, how she, a Haitian American, was abused by a white man, plays a role in how she’s perceived.

“If I’m honest, they see a 36-year-old,” she said. “They see a 36-year-old. They see my profile picture of me smiling. But look at that 9-year-old. Look at the picture of the 9-year-old girl who we... failed.”

Overcoming the trauma, Etienne said, was a constant fight. She said she hopes anyone who has been abused speaks out.

“I really truly do this for the children that don’t have a voice,” Etienne said. “The people whose family came to this country for the better and have experienced [the worst.] The children who I serve every day... the hundreds of brilliant kids who I have reached. For my son, my niece who are nearing the age when I was abused. My niece is eight years old, and when I look at her, I see me.”

‘I’m not going to be silenced’

Etienne says she vividly recalls the sexual abuse, which was often masked by gifts. Bassett, she said, would take her — but not her two older sisters — out to eat at restaurants. He bought her clothing and when she turned 16, a fully paid-for car.

He made her pinky promise to keep the abuse a secret, she said, even telling her that if she said anything, he would go to jail and the family would lose everything.

“I’m getting all these things to silence me, but I’m not going to be silenced anymore,” she said.

Etienne moved away from South Florida to run track and field at Clayton State University in Georgia, where she studied psychology. In 2010, she was admitted into a master’s program in counseling at Nova Southeastern University. Moving back to Florida came with angst, especially since she briefly lived with her aunt and Bassett in North Miami.

“Any time I step back into Miami, it’s tough,” Etienne said.

When she returned, she said she confronted Bassett about the sexual abuse, during which he pulled out a checkbook and told her “It wasn’t that bad.” Speaking up about how she was molested and exposed to inappropriate content caused rifts in her family.

It wasn’t until Etienne started working at alternative schools that she fully understood what happened to her. In 2019, she attended a training held by Darkness to Light, a nonprofit aiming to preventing child sexual abuse. She said it empowered her to come forward — and exposed how she was groomed, through tactics including isolation, manipulation and threats.

“The All-American track and field me has been running all her life,” she said. “I refused to be silenced, even if he’s 90.”