After being convicted on four of eight charges, Dennis Dellifield returned to court for sentencing. Judge Scott Barrett handed Dellifield five years of community control with 90 days spent in the Hardin County jail. With that, Dellifield will register as a tier two sex offender, ordered to have no contact with the victim, their family, or anyone under the age of 18. Lastly, he is prohibited from using social media or the internet unless authorized to do so.
"During my 49 years as an educator, it has become more apparent that in the last ten to 15 years our young people and the young adults are neither innocent nor naive as they would have us all believe," said Dellifield. "Nothing that was said during the course of this trial that I have not heard discussed in the band room. To the victim and to the parents themselves, a sincere apology."
Dellifield was convicted on four counts of attempted illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material, two counts being felonies of the third degree and two being misdemeanors of the first degree. The prosecution requested Dellifield serve 30 months in prison for each felony while the defense argued for the minimum community control sanction.
"The defendant doesn’t show any remorse, whatsoever, that’s the state’s position," said prosecutor Bradford Bailey. "In fact reviewing the P.S.I. the defendant's position is that he’s done nothing wrong"
"That the conduct of Mr. Dellifield, in sending these texts, was distasteful and inappropriate," Michael Rumer said, the defense attorney. "We’ve further taken the position stating that, that we didn’t believe it was criminal. We still don’t, obviously, there’s conflict between us."
The charges stem from an incident where Dellifield texted a former student who was a minor asking for a picture of his erect penis. Dellifield will also be fined $1,000 as part of his punishment.
