County grand jury indicts former Rusk HS teacher
Sheriff's office performs forensic analysis of computer hard drives

BRIAN BASSE

Former Rusk High School social studies teacher, Brian Edward Basse, 34, was indicted last week by a Cherokee County Grand Jury.

District Attorney Elmer Beckworth's office said the matter was presented to the grand jury and there was an indictment. However, the office has not received formal notification from the district clerk and no other information was available to the press.

Mr. Basse has been charged with two second degree felonies, indecency with a child and improper relationship between an educator and student. He was arrested Feb. 21, and bond was set at $10,000 on each of the charges.

The charges against Mr. Basse center around off-campus activities. The charges state that Mr. Basse improperly touched the student.

The Cherokeean Herald learned last week that the Cherokee County Sheriff's Department was asked to perform a forensic file recovery on the student's laptop computer. Some explicit images were recovered, along with AOL instant messages that authorities believe were exchanged between the student and Mr. Basse.

The Rusk Police Department obtained a search warrant for Mr. Basse's residence, which included his personal computer.

On the day of his arrest, Mr. Basse submitted his resignation. He had been a Rusk High School teacher since 2000. During that time he and his wife chaperoned several high school groups to foreign countries.