DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert B. Berlin announced today that Judge Robert Miller has sentenced Giuseppe Ressa, 36 (d.o.b. 12/9/1980) formerly of 313 Post Oak Circle, West Chicago, to twenty years in the Illinois Department of Corrections for abducting and making physical contact with young children on multiple occasions. On March 2, 2017, Miller found Ressa guilty of five counts of Child Abduction (Class 4 Felony) and two counts of Aggravated Criminal Sexual Abuse (Class 2 Felony) following a two-day-long bench trial. On June 4, 2015, Ressa appeared in Bond Court and was denied bond. He has been held in custody at the DuPage County Jail since that time.
On May 27, 2015, at approximately 7 p.m., Ressa approached a pair of siblings, a five-year-old boy and a seven-year-old girl, in the playground of the apartment complex where they lived on Dogwood Drive in Lisle. While the children were playing, Ressa made physical contact with the girl as she played on a slide. Additionally, Ressa offered the boy toys if he went to his vehicle with him. The boy began walking to Ressa’s vehicle with him but returned when his sister called him back. Ressa left the playground when an older sibling came to the playground to call the children home. The children’s parents immediately reported the incident to the Lisle Police Department who identified Ressa as a possible suspect. Five days later, on June 1, while conducting surveillance on Ressa, detectives observed him with three children, a seven-year-old girl, a four-year-old boy and a six-year-old girl, in front of an apartment building on College Road in Addison. Ressa gave the children candy and told them he would give them more if they accompanied him to another apartment building. As the two younger children began to follow Ressa, the elder child returned to the family’s apartment and told her mother what was happening outside. During this time, Ressa and the two children walked to the entrance of an apartment building and continued their conversation. While they were talking, Ressa rubbed the upper leg of the seven-year-old girl. Upon observing this, detectives approached Ressa and placed him under arrest.
“But for the actions of the Lisle Police Department, the case against Mr. Ressa may have had a completely different, tragic ending,” Berlin said. “Their actions put a stop to Mr. Ressa’s possibly nefarious behavior before he could get started. This case should serve as a notice to parents to remind their children that there are some very dangerous people in the world and that if approached by a stranger, they should immediately get away from that person and tell a trusted adult. I would like to thank the Lisle, West Chicago and Addison Police Departments for their outstanding work on this case. Because of their hard work and cooperative spirit, we were able to mount a very strong prosecution against Mr. Ressa. I would also like to thank Assistant State’s Attorneys Mike Pawl and Cathy DeLaMar for their efforts in holding Mr. Ressa responsible for his disgusting behavior.”
Ressa will be required to serve 50% of his sentence before being eligible for parole.
