r/magaconsequences

>The jury reached a verdict Wednesday afternoon in the civil trial for Florida House Rep. Fabian Basabe, accused of sexual harassment, battery and defamation.

>After about two hours of deliberation, the jury found Basabe liable for sexual harassment and defamation.

>He is liable for a total of $450,000 in damages.

>Basabe rested his case Wednesday morning without calling any witnesses. The Florida lawmaker represented himself in the trial. During Wednesday morning’s court proceedings, Basabe was reprimanded by Judge Lee Marsh for violating court orders multiple times.

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Judge Marsh told Basabe that his actions “unlawfully tainted the jury.” Basabe was given four court violations.

>“This is not an election, sir. This is a court of law,” Judge Marsh said. “We talked about this before we started that we’re trying this case in a court of law.”

UTICA — An Oswego man has pleaded guilty in federal court to receiving child pornography.

As part of his June 10 guilty plea, Robert Stachura, 56, admitted that in March 2025, he received eight videos and two images of children being sexually abused.

The charge carries a mandatory minimum term of 15 years in federal prison and maximum sentence of 40 years. Stachura also faces a fine of up to $250,000 and a term of supervised release of at least five years and up to life.

Stachura is already a registered sex offender based on his 2015 convictions and will have to continue his registration requirements upon his release from prison. A defendant’s sentence is imposed by a judge based on the particular statutes the defendant is convicted of violating, the U.S. sentencing guidelines and other factors.

Sentencing is scheduled for Oct.14 in Utica before Senior U.S. District Judge David N. Hurd.

In June 2015, after pleading guilty in the Northern District of New York to using the internet to attempt to entice minors to engage in unlawful sexual contact with him and possessing child pornography, Stachura was sentenced to serve concurrent terms of 135 months in prison, to be followed by 20 years of supervised release. Stachura’s term of supervised release began in December 2023.

In March 2025, Stachura admitted to the U.S. Probation Office to possessing an unreported internet-capable cellphone, in violation of his conditions of release. The phone was found to contain videos and images of child sexual abuse.

“This repeat offender has once again been brought to justice thanks to the relentless efforts of the FBI’s special agents,” First Assistant U.S. Attorney John Sarcone said in a news release. “After his release, the defendant chose to continue engaging in this abhorrent conduct, showing a complete disregard for the law and a disturbing willingness to reoffend. He now faces up to 40 years in federal prison. My office, working alongside our partners at the FBI and other law enforcement agencies, will aggressively pursue anyone involved in this behavior. We will not hesitate to bring charges, and we will do everything in our power to ensure that individuals who threaten our communities are removed from our streets.”

This case was investigated by the FBI’s Albany Division Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force, the New York State Police, and the United States Probation Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney A.J. Vickey is prosecuting the case as part of Project Safe Childhood.

Project Safe Childhood is a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit https://www.justice.gov/psc.