A former Cloverdale High School teacher's aide is expected to be sentenced to more than 11 years in state prison for molesting three teenage boys, two of whom were students at the school.
Dyke Clyde Dewitt, 65, of Cloverdale, recently pleaded no contest to eight counts of lewd acts on minors and one count of possessing child pornography. Under the agreement with the Sonoma County District Attorney's Office, he's set to be sentenced to 11 years and four months in prison on July 3.
District Attorney Jill Ravitch said in a statement that the length of the prison term "serves to hold the offender accountable and keep the community safe."
Dewitt worked as an instructional aide in a special education classroom when the molestation took place. One boy was a student in Dewitt's class, according to news release issued by the District Attorney.
A classmate testified that he saw Dewitt touch the boy's genital area through his clothes during class. Another developmentally disabled boy, 15, testified that Dewitt molested him at a Cloverdale campground as well as at Dewitt's trailer.
The third boy, a 15-year-old student at the school, said Dewitt befriended him, then molested him numerous times over the summer and fall of 2012.
Sonoma County sheriff's detectives arrested Dewitt at his trailer in October 2012. While serving a search warrant, they found a laptop with more than 2,000 images and videos containing child pornography.
Ravitch said, "This is a tragic and classic case of a child molester who used a position of trust to prey on vulnerable children."
DeWitt has not worked for the Cloverdale Unified School District since June 3, 2013, said Superintendent Steve Jorgensen. Before that, he was on an unpaid leave of absence.
(You can reach Staff Writer Jamie Hansen at 521-5205 or jamie.hansen@pressdemocrat.com.)
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