Crime & Safety

Ex-Cloverdale School Aide, 65, Pleads No Contest to Molestation; Will Serve 11 Years

A former Cloverdale High School teacher's aide will be sentenced in July to more than 11 years in prison for molesting three teenage boys.

Dyke Clyde Dewitt, 65, pleaded no contest on May 7 to eight counts of lewd acts on minors and one count of possessing child pornography, Sonoma County District Attorney Jill Ravitch said.

As part of the plea agreement, Dewitt will be sentenced on July 3 to 11 years and four months in prison, Ravitch said.

Dewitt was an instructional aide in a special education classroom at Cloverdale High School, and two of the victims were students at the school, Ravitch said. Dewitt befriended a 15-year-old boy who did odd jobs at Dewitt's trailer.

The teen testified Dewitt molested him numerous times in the summer and fall of 2012, Ravitch said.

A developmentally disabled boy testified at Dewitt's preliminary hearing in April that Dewitt molested him at a Cloverdale campground and at Dewitt's trailer, Ravitch said.

The third teen was also a disabled student in Dewitt's class. A classmate testified he saw Dewitt touch this disabled student over his clothes in the genital area during class, Ravitch said.

The Sonoma County Sheriff's Office arrested Dewitt at his trailer on Oct. 11, 2012.

Detectives seized a laptop computer and found more than 2,000 images and videos of child pornography, Ravitch said.

--Bay City News


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