‘I chose to fight. … He tried to take power from me, but I turned it on him, he ran from me,’ McSally said.
A man who attacked a former U.S. senator as she ran along a riverside park in Iowa last year was given a suspended one-year jail sentence on Thursday.
Dominic Henton, 26, pleaded guilty to assaulting Martha McSally, a former senator from Arizona, as she ran along the Missouri River in Council Bluffs, Iowa, on Nov. 8, 2023. His sentence will be followed by two years of probation.
McSally, who served in the Senate from 2019 to 2020, said that Henton pleaded guilty to aggravated harassment with sexual intent. The judge also ordered him to register as a sex offender for 10 years and attend residential treatment for sex offenders.
McSally said in her impact statement that Henton jumped on her from behind “in a bear hug fashion,” and groped her, but she was able to fight him off. She then chased after him as he fled.
“I chased him into the brush then decided to disengage to be visible by the police while I kept yelling that he won’t get away with this. He was able to escape in the heavy brush after ditching the jacket he was wearing,” McSally said in the statement.
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She also thanked law enforcement officers for apprehending the attacker in under 48 hours.
“I am also grateful this chapter in my life is now over,” she said.
“I chose to fight. … I know it’s tapped into a nerve of other sexual abuse and assault that I’ve been through in the past, which I’ve healed from as much as I feel can be done, but in this case, I felt like I took my power back. He tried to take power from me, but I turned it on him, he ran from me,” she said.
Lorenz Duchamps and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
