Brooklyn man gets 36 years for attempting to drug, sexually abuse minors

Co-Defendant’s Trial Delayed for Mental Competency Evaluation

March 3, 2015 By Charisma L. Troiano, Esq. Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Defendant Bebars Baslan. Photo via Government Handout

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A Brooklyn federal judge ordered a man to prison for 36 years for attempting to drug and sexually abuse children — some as young as 3 months old — and for possession of child pornography.

The defendant, identified as Bebars Baslan, was convicted in July 2014 on charges of traveling with the intent to engage in sexual acts with a child less than 12 years of age, conspiracy to produce child pornography, attempted production of child pornography and attempted coercion and enticement of a child to engage in illegal sexual conduct.

During the course of a two-week trial, the government produced evidence that in 2013, Baslan attempted to involve a friend in a plan to sexually abuse children.

That friend went to law enforcement and agreed to cooperate under the direction of the FBI. Over the course of the next two months, the friend recorded the defendant and his girlfriend, Kristen Henry, discussing plans to take sexually explicit photographs and videos of children as young as 3 months old.

Baslan’s scheme was to exploit Henry’s history of working with children through convincing parents to allow her to babysit their children so that he could drug and sexually abuse the children.

According to the criminal complaint, a confidential source informed the FBI that Baslan was seeking a 1-and-a-half-year-old child victim so Henry could be photographed performing sexual acts while Baslan photographed the event to hold as potential blackmail against his girlfriend.

In recorded telephone conversations with the informant, Baslan is heard discussing the video, his intended acts of perversion and even how to ensure the child would have no memory of the abuse.
“I want to make a little video of [Henry] blowing whatever [the 1-and-a-half year-old victim] wouldn’t even know what was going on. And then that’s it,” Baslan said during a taped 2013 conversation.

In that same conversation, Baslan attempts to scale back his intentions, adding, “I’m not looking for an actual thing to happen. I’m just looking for the pose of it.”

Henry is also heard on one tape talking to the men with whom she is allegedly planning the babysitting service, saying, “Y’all know I did work in schools. I worked with kids.”

With guidance from the FBI, the source arranged to bring the two young children along with his 8-year-old niece to a New Jersey hotel for the express purpose of sexual exploitation.

In the taped phone conversations, Baslan notes that he and Henry planned to initially “take it easy,” taking only a “few pictures” at first, since it “would be our first time, and we’ll take it further next one [sic].”

In March 2013, Baslan gave the FBI source Benadryl with instructions to give the 8-year-old victim a high dose in order to “knock her out” so Baslan could sexually abuse her.

Later that night, Baslan and his girlfriend, Henry, traveled to the Jersey City hotel with various cameras. FBI agents arrested them as they were about to enter the room they believed contained the drugged children.

Court papers indicate that Henry’s trial has been delayed as federal prosecutors work to examine Henry’s mental competency. In June 2014, Brooklyn Federal District Judge Raymond Dearie denied Henry’s request that a second team of government attorneys be assembled to review her mental capacity.

Henry argued that Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure (FRCP) required that medical reports not be disclosed to any attorney for the government, expressing concerns that the examining doctor’s report may contain incriminating statements or trial strategy when disclosed to prosecutors.

Brooklyn prosecutors challenged that the rule, Rule 12.2(c), only applies to a defendant in the sentencing phase of a death penalty case — which is not the case for Henry.

“The court therefore sees no reason at this time to order the government to establish a separate team to litigate Henry’s competency,” Dearie wrote in his ruling. “Accordingly, the government’s trial team may proceed with its review of [the doctor’s] report and prepare to litigate Henry’s competency.”

Henry, like Baslan, faces a minimum of 30 years behind bars and a maximum life sentence. Baslan was also sentenced to lifetime supervised release to follow his sentence of imprisonment. He will be required to register as a sex offender.

Attorneys for both defendants did not reply with comments by press time.