Buffalo Center man pleads not guilty to sexual abuse, stalking charges

BUFFALO CENTER — A Buffalo Center man accused of sexual abuse and stalking has pleaded not guilty.

36-year-old Brandon Bassett has been charged with second-degree sexual abuse, lascivious acts with a child, and stalking by unauthorized use of a GPS device.

A criminal complaint says a minor female reported a sexual assault to a school employee in October, with the school reporting it to the Department of Human Services. A DHS agent and the officer accompanied the child and the child’s mother to a Child Protective Center interview a week later, where the child reported that she had been assaulted in the early hours of a school day in April. 

A separate complaint states that Bassett admitted to authorities during an October 27th interview that he had placed a GPS tracker on his wife’s vehicle, with his wife saying she did not know anything about the tracker.

Bassett filed a written plea of not guilty to the charges, with his trial set to start on March 1st. Second-degree sexual abuse is a Class B felony punishable by up to 25 years in prison, lascivious acts is a Class C felony punishable by up to 10 years, while the stalking charge is a serious misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail.