Northwest Indiana Discussion

Feds indict man convicted of bestiality

dhinkel@nwitimes.com
219.933.4183 | Friday, November 21, 2008 | No comments posted.

The Hobart man who sexually abused and killed a chicken at a Valparaiso motel in 2001 has been indicted by a federal grand jury in Hammond.

Michael Bessigano, 37, faces a charge of using the Internet to receive images depicting bestiality. The indictment alleges Bessigano committed the crime between February and June.

Bessigano was in the Lake County Jail on Thursday. He has been jailed since July, when he was arrested and charged with a crime similar to the one alleged in the indictment.

He was slated for a jury trial on that charge until Judge James Moody last week dismissed the charge.

Bessigano served more than four years in prison for the 2002 animal cruelty conviction for having sex with a chicken, then killing the animal.

He was released from prison Jan. 29, then arrested again June 12 on allegations of a parole violation. He was released June 30, then arrested again on July 3 on the federal charge.

This just proves that chivalry is not dead!

Last one out of Hobart turn off the lights.

Man who threatened Gary cops facing charges

October 28, 2008

Post-Tribune staff report
GARY -- Because witnesses refused to testify against Warren Hunter, the 26-year-old Hobart man walked away from murder and attempted murder charges, court records show.
But this time the witnesses are Gary police officers accusing Hunter of making threats during an arrest in August.

"Just charge me and I will get out on bond. Just ask anyone about 'Little Perp.' You better watch your back. I have friends that kill for fun," Hunter allegedly told Patrolman Nicholas Deem after his arrest.

Deem responded to a gas station at Rhode Island Street and 5th Avenue about 3:30 a.m. Aug. 7 and saw a silver minivan blocking traffic, the probable cause affidavit states.

The driver ignored officers' demands to move the van, then started shouting at Deem, Patrolman Justin Hedrick and Lt. Jeff Trevino.

Once in the squad car, Hunter told Deem, "Don't come to my hood or you will get it," the probable cause affidavit states.

Detective Cpl. Arturo Azcona obtained several charges this week against Hunter, including intimidation, disrupting traffic, resisting law enforcement, public intoxication and disorderly conduct, court records state.

He was charged in 2001 with the shooting death of Wendell Cowart, a shoe store manager, after the two argued over a water gun fight. Federal authorities investigated the homicide and obtained charges, which were dropped later when witnesses did not testify.

Three years later, Hunter was charged with attempted murder, but that case was also dismissed because witnesses would not cooperate with prosecutors.

Azcona said Hunter should be considered dangerous and anyone who encounters him should call 911.

Man that kind of trash needs to stay in Hobart!

Oh come on. The guy was having sex with a good looking chic!

He told it he was going to marry it.

I hear the ACLU is defending his right to have sex with a chic.

Of course later he was heard stating "I did not have sexual relations with that chic, Ms. Poultrinski."

So there is hope for a certain someone in Hammond then?

Gary cop's son given alternative sentence
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November 27, 2008

Post-Tribune staff report
Lake Superior Court Judge Salvador Vasquez sentenced a Hobart man who admitted he stole two saws from a hardware store in August to 31 months in an alternative sentencing program.
Thomas Branson Jr., pleaded guilty in November to theft for stealing two saws on Aug. 21 from the Ace Hardware, 1310 Broadway, Gary.

At his sentencing hearing, defense attorney Jerry Peteet handed over a money order for restitution totaling $181.89.

Branson, son of Gary Deputy Police Chief Thomas Branson Sr., initially will be placed in the Lake County Community Corrections forensic diversion program, where defendants have an opportunity for intensive drug treatment.

A second felony charge of fraud on a financial institution was dismissed at his Wednesday sentencing hearing.

Man charged in robbery

StoryDiscussionFont Size: Default font size Larger font size BY DEBORAH LAVERTY
dlaverty@nwitimes.com

219.762.1397, ext. 2223 | Tuesday, December 02, 2008 | No comments posted.

LAKE STATION | A 24-year-old Hobart man has been charged with robbing at gunpoint a 53-year-old Lake Station gas station owner, Assistant Police Chief John McDaniel said.

Angel Hernandez Jr. was charged Saturday through Lake County Superior Court with robbery, confinement, intimidation, battery and resisting law enforcement, McDaniel said.

Hernandez is being held in the Lake County Jail in Crown Point, he said.

The victim, the owner of Mike's Gas Stop, 2700 Central Ave., told police he was taking a money deposit bag to his vehicle shortly after 3 p.m. on Friday when he was approached by a man demanding money, court documents state.

The victim refused until a second man approached with a gun drawn inside his sleeve and again demanded the money.

The money was handed over and the two men were seen leaving the area in a black Ford Explorer, court documents state.

Police later spotted an abandoned vehicle, matching a description of the Ford Explorer, parked in front of a house at 10th Avenue and Decatur Street.

While waiting at that location for backup, Cpl. David Johnson reported seeing a man leaving the house. He stopped him for questioning. Soon after, a man later identified as Hernandez, pulled up and told the police to get away from the vehicle, which he said was his.

Hernandez continued to be argumentative, at one point punching police Detective Brian Williams in the nose, court documents state.

Hernandez and three other individuals were taken to the Police Department for questioning.

During questioning, one of the individuals stated Hernandez had bragged to him about robbing an old man in Lake Station.

Police also found a key to the Ford Explorer in Hernandez's pocket and recovered $1,600 in large bills in Hernandez's Hobart home.

Teen victim doesn't agree with plea deal
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December 12, 2008

Post-Tribune staff report
A Merrillville man charged with child exploitation has pleaded guilty to voyeurism in exchange for a sentence of 18 months' probation.
Wesley A. English, 22, admitted he secretly videotaped himself having sex with a 17-year-old girl at a Hobart home where he was staying.

English had faced from two to eight years in prison on the original charge.

Responding to a question from Lake Superior Court Judge Thomas Stefaniak Jr., deputy prosecutor Michelle Jatkiewicz said the victim in English's case was not in agreement with the plea deal.

English is scheduled for sentencing Jan. 7. If he complies with the terms of his probation his felony conviction will be reduced to a misdemeanor. English will not be required to register as a sex offender.

English's trial in the case ended in mistrial in October 2007.

Co-defendant Gary V. Nelson, 21, of Hobart, is charged with child exploitation. Authorities said he secretly videotaped teenage girls naked or nearly naked as they engaged in sexual activity with him in April and May 2005.

Nelson's next hearing date before Judge Diane Ross Boswell is Jan. 13.

Hobart man charged with felonies
Size: Default font size Larger font size By Times Staff | Sunday, January 04, 2009 | No comments posted.

A Hobart man has been charged in connection with the theft of a vehicle on Friday that led to a police pursuit and ended in a crash involving a Gary squad car.

Samuel Mullins, 18, was charged Saturday with auto theft and resisting/fleeing law enforcement, both Class D felonies, Lake County Police Chief Marco Kuyachich said.

Mullins remained in custody Saturday, Kuyachich said.

Police said Mullins stole the car from a Merrillville gas station Friday afternoon. Merrillville police reported the car stolen, and a Lake County officer who spotted Mullins in the stolen car at Ridge Road and Taft Street pursued him.

The pursuit, which reached speeds of more than 80 mph at times, ended up on westbound Interstate 80/94. Mullins collided with a Gary squad car near the Burr Street exit ramp, police said.

No one was injured. The incident caused a traffic backup from Interstate 65 to Cline Avenue on Friday afternoon.

Lake County Police handled charges related to the auto theft and fleeing, and Indiana State Police are handling any charges connected to the traffic incidents, Kuyachich said.

Hobart man faces reckless homicide, other felony charges from fatal crash


By James D. Wolf Jr.
Post-Tribune correspondent

VALPARAISO -- The Hobart man who allegedly struck and killed a Wheeler woman walking her dog, has been charged with reckless homicide, along with six other felonies and four misdemeanors.
Steven K. Cates, 28, faces up to 58 years in prison on the felony charges alone.

He is accused of being high on marijuana when he hit 52-year-old Mary Shobe of Wheeler about 4:27 p.m. on Nov. 13.

According to court records, when police took urine and blood samples from Cates later that evening, he "tested negative for alcohol but positive for cannabinoids in his urine."

Cannabinoids are the substances marijuana leaves in the body when it's ingested.

Two of the felonies are for driving under the influence of illegal drugs and causing a death. Another is for leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death.

He was previously charged with leaving the scene of an accident causing a serious injury and operating a vehicle while intoxicated.

The new charges come after Shobe died in Loyola University Medical Center on Dec. 5. She was airlifted there shortly after the accident, and injuries from the accident caused her death, court reports state.

Shobe was walking her dog across Indiana 130 by the intersection of County Road 625W when she was struck by a vehicle.

Reports state she was wearing a reflective vest, and the vehicle that hit her didn't stop.

Shobe was crossing the highway to the south side when another vehicle traveling west slowed to turn north on 625W. The vehicle that hit her was passing the turning vehicle, reports state.

The passenger in Cates' vehicle went to Hobart police later that evening.

The man said Cates, whom he knew from work, was driving him home and speeding on back roads, passing two to three vehicles at a time. When they reached a nursery on Indiana 130, he sped to 75-80 mph and continued that speed through Wheeler, where the limit is 35 mph.

The passenger told police that Cates declined to stop because his license was suspended and he didn't have insurance.

Porter County Jail officials said that Cates wasn't in custody Wednesday evening. He bonded out of the jail Dec. 3 on $5,000 cash bond.

http://www.post-trib.com/news/porter/13 ... es.article

Hobart man charged in gas station robbery


StoryDiscussionFont Size: Default font size Larger font size BY DEBORAH LAVERTY
dlaverty@nwitimes.com
219.762.1397, ext. 2223 | Wednesday, January 21, 2009 | No comments posted.

HOBART | Shoe prints left in the snow helped police track down an 18-year-old Hobart man accused of committing an armed robbery at a gas station off 61st Avenue, police Detective Dave Grissom said.

Brian Kyle Romo was charged with robbery through Lake Superior Court on Tuesday.

Romo is accused of walking into the Speedway gas station, 4732 W. 61st Ave. shortly before 6 a.m. on Sunday and asking the clerk for a pen and a piece of paper, Grissom said.

The clerk complied and Romo wrote a note stating he had a gun and if the clerk didn't give him money from both registers he would kill him, police said.

The clerk handed over the money and Romo fled on foot through a snow-covered area, Grissom said.

He said the department's canine unit was able to track the footprints that led to Romo's house.

Police arrested Romo, who was still dressed in the same clothes, at his house.

Romo still had the money that he is accused of taking inside his pockets, Grissom said.