Dearborn man gets prison in sex case

Sentenced to 17 years for exploiting teenager

Christina Hall

Federal prosecutors said a Dearborn man accused of sexually exploiting a teenager and giving the victim methamphetamine will spend 17 years in prison.

Haitham Sam Bazzi, 28, was sentenced Thursday in U.S. District Court. Bazzi pleaded guilty to sexual exploitation of children in November. Prosecutors dismissed charges of receiving and possessing child pornography as part of the plea agreement.

In March 2022, Bazzi enticed a minor, then 16, to take part in sexually explicit conduct that he recorded on his iPhone, according to the plea agreement.

It states the two met in the summer of 2021 over an internet-based dating application. Bazzi began using the victim for sexual acts, which he often recorded, and frequently provided the victim with methamphetamine, according to the plea agreement.

Sentencing memo sealed

The U.S. Attorney’s Office stated in a news release Thursday that a concerned adult reported Bazzi to Dearborn police after Bazzi showed him sexually abusive material involving children on Bazzi’s phone.

Police executed a search warrant and recovered multiple devices from Bazzi’s residence, which police turned over to the FBI. The FBI found numerous images and videos of child sexually abusive material, including a video of the minor victim, per the U.S. Attorney’s Office release.

Bazzi was indicted in April 2022, according to federal court records.

Bazzi’s attorney, who could not be reached for comment Friday, filed a motion to seal Bazzi’s sentencing memorandum and supporting exhibits because they contained sensitive information, including a discussion about Bazzi’s mental health history, familial abuse and an expert evaluation, according to court records. The motion was granted.

In their sentencing memorandum, federal prosecutors said the “enduring mental, physical and emotional trauma suffered by the children exploited by Bazzi is difficult to adequately describe.”

Multiple drugs and ‘all-day binges’

“Part of what makes the nature and circumstances of Bazzi’s offenses so terrible, and why his offense conduct warrants a 264month sentence, is that his victims — both MV1 and the children whose rapes were recorded and put on the internet for Bazzi to enjoy — will have to relive their abuse every day for the rest of their lives. There is no escaping what Bazzi did to them; no real ability to fully heal and be made whole again.”

The government’s sentencing memorandum stated that even though Bazzi had a “difficult and tragic childhood, his substance abuse issues are a characteristic that weigh in favor of a lengthy sentence of incarceration.” It stated Bazzi began using cocaine when he

was 15 and used until he was 20; and he began using methamphetamine in his late teens or early 20s, use that continued through his arrest.

Prosecutors wrote that Bazzi used large quantities of the substance in “all-day binges.”

“Bazzi reported being introduced to methamphetamine by a male he met online and that his use was initially limited to sexual encounters,” the memorandum continued. “Bazzi used this same tragic strategy to victimize MV1. Bazzi’s severe substance abuse problem thus makes him a danger to himself and enhances the severity of the nature and circumstances of the instant offense.”

Contact Christina Hall: chall@freepress.com.

Follow her on X, formerly Twitter: @challreporter.