Jeffery Dwyer, 61, a Warrenton man who pleaded guilty to sexual abuse of one of his nephews who came forward with allegations dating back to the 1980s — when he was a child and Dwyer was 20 in Rappahannock — was sentenced to serve 2.5 years of a 20-year sentence in Rappahannock County Circuit Court last Thursday.
The sentence was a result of a plea deal made July 23 between Dwyer and Commonwealth’s Attorney Art Goff. According to the agreement, Dwyer will serve 2.5 years, with 17.5 additional years suspended. Upon release, he will serve five years of supervised probation with a probation officer and 20 years unsupervised. He will be subject to special sexual offender probation conditions, according to court records.
Dwyer avoided a jury trial in July after the agreement was struck between his attorney, Harold Ward, and Goff on the day the trial was supposed to begin. Dwyer was initially indicted on over a dozen charges including aggravated sexual battery, sodomy, rape and indecent acts with a child. He pleaded guilty to two of those charges, both associated with the allegations of abuse of a nephew.
Goff decided not to prosecute charges associated with another allegation of abuse that was to be tried at the same time if a trial had gone forward, according to the plea agreement.
Ireland Hayes is a reporter for Foothills Forum, a nonprofit organization that supports local news in Rappahannock County.
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