YOUNGSTOWN – Judge John Durkin has sentenced Alex C. Bugno to 17 years in prison for 14 convictions of compelling prostitution and one of pandering obscenities for making a sex video.

Bugno, 31, of Clingan Road in Poland, could have gotten about 40 years in prison for paying three boys 16 and 17 between $200 and $500 multiple times each to engage in sex acts at two Bugno Towing buildings in the city from February to June 2014. Making the video could have added eight more years.

Two of the victims, now in their 20s, testified at the trial in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, but a defense attorney argued that their stories were inconsistent.

Assistant Prosecutor Steve Yacovone acknowledged that one of the accusers “got a little mixed up on the witness stand,” saying, “though (he) had his issues, he was telling the truth.”

Yacovone said a video prosecutors showed to the jury of Bugno engaged in a sex act with one of the victims was indicative of the type of activity the two boys who testified described in their testimony.

“Those boys were abused, and that abuse is corroborated by (the) video,” Yacovone said.

Bugno, who co-owned the towing company with his father, did not take the stand during the trial, but his attorneys called his father to testify, as well as several company employees.