Set phasers to “blood boil”, Mister Spock. From the Gary IN Post-Tribune :
Animal sex offender gets prison
May 13, 2009; By Andy Grimm, Post-Tribune staff writer
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.
And let’s not underestimate the severity of his crimes:
Jun 1, 2008 – Hobart, IN (US)
Convicted: Transportation of bestiality pornographyMay 30, 2001 – Valparaiso, IN (US)
Convicted: Chicken sexually assaulted in hotelSentence: Bessigano received a 10 1/2 year prison sentence after admitting to stealing a farm chicken in October 2001 and taking it to U.S. 30 motel where he killed the animal while having sex with it. He was found competent to stand trial, and previous arrests involving alleged abuse or theft of dogs, geese and a rooster helped Porter County prosecutors secure a maximum sentence for animal cruelty.
Feb 18, 1994 – Saint John, IN (US)
Convicted: Assaulting a neighbors dogJul 9, 1992 – Crown Point, IN (US)
Convicted: Killing a Rottweiler dogJan 1992 – Valparaiso, IN (US)
Convicted: Dog sexually assaulted, killedNotes:
Repeat Offender – animal abuse and attempted theft. Bessigano has said he slept with dead animals, including a raccoon, when he was a child. While in jail, he would sleep under his cot, paint cat-like stripes on his body and make drawings referring to himself as “master of cats.”
Oh yeah. he can date my daughter, sure — if she’s a cat.
He was badly beaten in the Porter County Jail while awaiting sentencing in 2001, and has been in and out of psychological treatment for schizophrenia since childhood, his mother has said. Bessigano has told investigators in the past that he believes he is an animal trapped in a human’s body.
See, I was just going to say that. I think he’s an animal, too. Yet the prosecutor thinks it’s okay to go easy on serial animal molesters and killers:
“I think the sentence was appropriate, given the facts of the case,” Van Wormer said.
Lovely. What does the serial molester think?
Judge Philip Simon said he hopes Bessigano can end the “merry-go-round of incarceration” for bestiality crimes.
“I’ve been trying,” Bessigano told Simon. “Nobody wants to help me.”Bessigano . . . admitted “wholeheartedly” that he downloaded images of sadomasochistic human-animal pornography.
Oh, sure. He can watch my kids anytime. Hey, let’s be clear about why this has happened. This is a guy with a history from childhood of sex crimes against animals.
And nobody noticed? Not his family? They noticed his “schizophrenia, but not that he was screwing roadkill? Not his school counselors? Nobody?
This is a guy who has continued his crimes for almost fifteen years. This is his fifth conviction; and despite the fact he was violating parole with his bestiality porn, he’s getting a sentence “at the low end of federal guidelines.”
No sending him back to prison the other six years of his State sentence. No “repeat offender” harsher sentence. Just sending him for “psychological counseling.”
I feel like I’m missing something here. I know Bessigano is; about six years of his prior sentence.
The good news? That 22 months — he could be out in September of next year with good behavior.
Peachy!
~~ACP~~
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