A former Bethel Park police lieutenant pleaded guilty Wednesday to helping a woman illegally enter the United States from Mexico because he said he “loved her” and she could “keep his house.”
Blake Babin, 59, will be sentenced March 13 in federal court on a single count of transporting an illegal alien.
Bethel Park Mayor Jack Allen said Babin is no longer with the department. The mayor said he had no comment on Babin’s guilty plea.
Police Chief Timothy O’Connor resigned abruptly on Monday, Allen said. The mayor said he did not know why.
The U.S. Attorney’s office said that from Oct. 20 through Dec. 30, 2022, Babin gave money to an 18-year-old Venezuelan woman living in Colombia to pay for her illegal entry into the United States from Mexico.
The woman failed to get into the United States twice, but managed to get in on the third try when she crossed the border near El Paso, Texas, where Babin was waiting to take her to Phoenix and then Pittsburgh, prosecutors said.
Investigators said Babin met the woman in Colombia, where she had been working as a prostitute, and they began exchanging text messages.
Babin told investigators he helped smuggle the woman in to the United States because he “loved her,” wanted her to help him “keep his house” and because she enjoyed sex,” prosecutors said.
