As part of the plea deal, Batchu, a psychiatry resident at the University of Illinois, agreed to accept a 24-year sentence.
The federal courthouse in Springfield, where Mani Batchu of Chicago pleaded guilty to sexually exploiting an Amherst teenager he met on the Internet.SPRINGFIELD – Mani M. Batchu’s odyssey from Chicago psychiatry resident to accused sexual predator took another turn Monday when he pleaded guilty to sexually exploiting an Amherst teenager he met online.
By pleading guilty to five counts in U.S. District Court, Batchu assured himself a minimum prison sentence of 24 years and perhaps a decade longer for long-distance trysts with a 15-year-old girl in motels in Connecticut and Florida and the Hampshire Mall in Hadley.
Batchu, 29, pleaded guilty to sexual exploitation of a minor and four related charges in a plea deal with prosecutors. Wearing a khaki prison uniform and hightop sneakers, the defendant was briefed by Judge Michael A. Ponsor on the consequences of his guilty pleas before offering his guilty pleas in a confident, if subdued, voice.
Sentencing was set for Oct. 5.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven H. Breslow said the government will ask for a term of between 302 and 405 months; as part of the agreement, a sixth charge will be dropped and Batchu will not appeal any sentence shorter than 293 months.
Sexually explicit videos involving other minors were found at Batchu’s home during a raid in 2009, according to Breslow, who said the University of Illinois psychiatry resident was studying adolescent psychology at the time of his arrest in 2009.
Before accepting the guilty pleas, Ponsor reminded the defendant that the maximum penalties for the charges ranged from 30 years to life in prison.
Batchu has been held in federal custody since his arrest in August 2009 following a rendezvous with the 15-year-old girl at the Hampshire Mall in Hadley.
Using the name Mark Taylor and claiming to be 17 years old, Batchu first encountered the girl on an Internet dating site, and eventually took flights and drove cross-country from Chicago for further encounters; the girl, identified in court papers as Minor A., initially claimed to be older, but later confessed her real age, prosecutors said.
The defendant “groomed” the teenager for sexual relationship through hundreds of phone calls, e-mails and text messages, and mailed cards, songs and expensive gifts to her home.
After the relationship was discovered and two restraining orders issued, Batchu continued to see the girl, visiting her in Florida while her family was vacationing and meeting her at the Hampshire Mall on the day he was arrested.
Along with five family members, the victim watched the hearing and left without comment; Ponsor complimented the girl for “poise and bravery.”