A Cloverdale High School special education teacher's aide has been jailed on suspicion of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old high school student, authorities said Thursday.
Dyke Dewitt, 63, was arrested late Wednesday at his Cloverdale home by detectives from the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office domestic violence and sexual assault unit.
He was booked into Sonoma County Jail on four felony allegations of sexual misconduct with a juvenile, said Sheriff's Lt. Dennis O'Leary, who declined to disclose the teen's gender.
The case came to the attention of the Sheriff's Office after the teen's family contacted Cloverdale police.
"At this point we don't know" if there were other victims, said O'Leary. The alleged acts did not occur at the school, he said.
"We believe there was more than one incident and I believe that the majority were at the suspect's residence," he said.
The assaults are believed to have taken place over the past several months, O'Leary said.
Cloverdale School District Superintendent Steve Jorgensen said the district was informed Thursday of the arrest.
"We just got the information, so we're trying to make a decision about what to do. We're awaiting information from the sheriff's department," he said.
He said Dewitt is on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigations by the sheriff and the district.
Dewitt has been with the district for two years, Jorgensen said, and is assigned to a single classroom. He would have been subject upon hiring to the same fingerprint tests any district employee would undergo.
Detectives who searched his home on a search warrant obtained "significant items of evidence," O'Leary said.
Dewitt is being held on $145,000 bail.
The investigation is continuing, and anyone with information about the case is asked to call the sheriff's domestic violence and sexual assault unit, 565-8290.
You can reach Staff Writer Jeremy Hay at 521-5212 or jeremy.hay@pressdemocrat.com or on Twitter @jeremyhay
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