Chicago lawyer gets 6-year sentence for sexual assault
Chicago real estate lawyer Anthony Bergamino Jr., has been sentenced to six years in prison for sexually assaulting a woman in a Gold Coast hotel two years ago.
Bergamino, 51, was convicted of sexual assault and criminal sexual abuse earlier this year, the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times report.
“There have been times when my good judgment has failed me, and I’m truly sorry if that has negatively impacted other people, including [the victim],” Bergamino told Cook County Judge Thomas Gainer at his sentencing Thursday, according to the Sun-Times.
The victim, a 25-year-old Minnesota woman, said the attack had left her emotionally and mentally devastated.
“This is something that will stay with me the rest of my life. I did not ask for this, I did not deserve this, as no woman does,” she wrote in a victim impact statement read aloud in court.
The victim, who was in town for a work conference and a rock concert, said she had propped open her hotel room door for a college classmate when Bergamino barged in and attacked her. During his trial, prosecutors accused Bergamino of trying to conceal evidence of the attack by slathering his hands with lip balm.
Bergamino said he had met the woman earlier and that she had given him her room number. He admitted kissing and touching her, but denied fondling her, as she had claimed.
