Prosecutor Find “Sentence Appropriate”Animal sex offender gets prison
May 13, 2009
A Hobart man who twice served time for killing animals now will spend nearly three years in federal prison for downloading images of people having sex with animals. Michael Bessigano likely will serve his sentence in a Boston-area facility for male offenders with mental problems.
U.S. Judge Philip Simon on Tuesday sentenced Bessigano to 33 months in prison and three years of supervised release, a term at the low end of federal guidelines. Simon two weeks ago threw out a plea agreement that would have seen Bessigano serve only 24 months, stating that Bessigano’s history did not seem to make him a candidate for a below-guidelines sentence.
So, in other words the judge didn’t want him to get a too-lenient sentence, just a lenient sentence. Peachy. That’s sure looking out for the people of Northwest Indiana.
Simon has asked the federal bureau of prisons to place Bessigano at Federal Medical Center Devens, and also that Bessigano participate in therapy for sex offenders.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Bernard Van Wormer said the sentence was appropriate for Bessigano, who served time prison for killing a neighbor’s rottweiler in St. John Township in 1993, and was jailed again in 2001 for killing a chicken, and having sex with it. Bessigano was arrested in June 2008 after federal agents found images of bestiality on his computer hard drive after Bessigano’s state parole officers requested a search.
