A 71-year-old man, who was facing sexual assault charges from the 1980s when he was a foster parent, was sentenced last week to 12 years and 8 months in the Department of Corrections.
Dennis K. Donnelly, formerly of Galesburg and had been living in Arizona, pleaded guilty on December 12th to one count of Class X aggravated criminal sexual assault of a minor while the other three charges against him were dropped.
Donnelly had been living in Phoenix, Arizona, at the time of his arrest on October 15th in 2018 and was extradited back to Knox County on the warrant of sexual assault.
Donnelly was accused of the crimes by individuals who were under the age of 13 at the time. The three incidents were said to have happened within a year of each other inside of a Knoxville home.
Donnelly will get credit for 359 days already served and be required to register as a sex offender after his release from prison.
