Pike County man sentenced to decades for child rape

Sept. 01--Michael Bonsignore likely will die in prison.

A Monroe County judge specially presiding in Pike County sentenced the 48-year-old Dingmans Ferry man Monday to 20 to 40 years in state prison immediately after he pleaded guilty to two counts of child rape, one count of rape of a person with a mental disability and one count of corruption of minors, Pike County Assistant District Attorney Sarah Wilson said Tuesday.

His state sentence will run consecutive to a 2012 federal sentence of 25 years for producing and distributing child pornography depicting abuse of the two young girls.

Monday's guilty plea capped a more than four-year legal battle that began with his 2011 federal child pornography indictment, then state criminal charges one year later for raping two 9-year-old girls on camera and forcing an 11-year-old boy to masturbate in front of a computer while another man watched via webcam. One girl was autistic and barely spoke.

The Times-Tribune does not identify victims of sexual assault.

"Horrific sexual abuse was perpetrated against three children by Bonsignore and our office had a duty to proceed with prosecuting him for the lifetime of pain and suffering his crimes caused," District Attorney Ray Tonkin said Tuesday in a news release. "He needed to be held accountable for all aspects of his crimes against children. The sentence means Bonsignore will likely spend the rest of his life behind bars, exactly where he belongs."

Mr. Bonsignore pleaded guilty to the federal child pornography charge in February, 2012 in the Middle District of Pennsylvania and was sentenced to the Federal Correctional Institution at Fort Dix, New Jersey.

About three months later, the county district attorney filed a criminal complaint against the federal inmate with scores of crimes directly related to the sexual abuse that stretched from 2006 through 2011. The complaint prompted a legal battle to dismiss the charges on the grounds the district attorney's case conflicted with double jeopardy laws, which protect people from facing the same charge twice. His defense appealed to the state Superior Court and argued the acts described by the prosecution had already been covered in the federal conviction.

The court disagreed in December and reasoned the state's charges focused on the physical crimes against the children, while the federal charges focused on the emotional and psychological harm. The state Supreme Court denied his petition of appeal, according to court records.

Ms. Wilson said she believes Mr. Bonsignore will not be eligible for parole until 2056, when the sexually violent predator is an 89-year-old man, the district attorney's release states.

He will not serve the state sentence imposed Monday until at least 2036. Mr. Bonsignore was in the Pike County Correctional Facility on Tuesday.

Contact the writer: jkohut@timesshamrock.com, @jkohutTT on Twitter.

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