Police arrest Dix Hills man on charges of sexual misconduct with horses

Suffolk police arrested a Dix Hills man Thursday for alleged sexual misconduct with horses.

Officials say 30-year-old Steven Errante had sexual contact with horses on Aug. 25 and Sept. 4 at a stable located at 282 Pine Acres Blvd. in Dix Hills.

As News 12 reported, Errante was convicted in 2014 of beating a dog with a baseball bat so badly that it had to be euthanized.

Police say he was supposed to register on the animal abuse registry as part of his sentence, but never did. Special Victims Section detectives conducted a check on him, and that's when police say they discovered the abuse of the horses.

Police aren't saying how Errante ended up on the property, but just a few hundred feet away from the stables is a trail that ends at Errante's house.

"He had no right to be on that farm," says Suffolk County Police Commissioner Timothy Sini. "He was trespassing on that farm and we have certainly sufficient evidence to charge him with those sex acts."

Sini told News 12 that this type of depraved behavior is especially disturbing.

"This not only a danger to the animals that he abused, but most often these people are likely to commit depraved acts against human beings. You look at serial killers or domestic violence abusers, many of them have a history of abusing animals,” he said.

Errante pleaded not guilty Thursday to two counts of sexual misconduct with an animal, as well as failure to register on the animal abuse offenders registry. 

He is being held on $6,000 bail.