Dent serving 20- to 40-years for child rape
Dent
HOLLIDAYSBURG — A city man serving a 20- to 40-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to child rape was found to be a sexually violent predator following an evaluation by the state Sexual Offender’s Assessment Board.
Judge Jackie Atherton Bernard accepted the evaluation in the case of Benjamin Thomas Dent Jr., 54, after defense attorney Mary Elizabeth Schaffer and Assistant District Attorney Nicholas Mays stipulated to its findings.
Schaffer confirmed that she and Dent conferred with their own expert and decided not to move forward with presenting their findings at the hearing as they would do nothing for Dent’s defense.
When asked by Bernard if she and Dent agreed with the evaluation stating that Dent had an abnormal mental disorder that met the criteria of a sexually violent predator, Schaffer said yes.
As a part of the sexually violent predator designation, Dent will be a lifetime registrant under Megan’s Law, Bernard said.
Dent was sentenced on Sept. 11 to 20 to 40 years in a state correctional institution after pleading guilty to 63 of the 710 charges against him. In exchange for his guilty pleas, Dent’s remaining 647 charges were dismissed.
Dent’s original charges included nine felony counts of rape of a child, 624 felony counts of child pornography, 57 felony counts of depicting a sex act, two felony counts of corruption of minors, single felony counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child, aggravated indecent assault of a child and unlawful contact with a minor.
He also faced six misdemeanor counts each of design/copy obscene material depicting a minor and indecent assault of a person less than 13 years of age and one misdemeanor count each of indecent exposure, unlawful contact with a minor and invasion of privacy.
Of these charges, Dent pleaded guilty to the 17 felony counts each of depicting a sex act and child pornography, nine felony counts of child rape, two felony counts of corruption of minors, single felony counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child, unlawful contact with a minor and aggravated indecent assault of a child, as well as the six misdemeanor counts each of indecent assault of a person less than 13 years of age and design/copy obscene material depicting a minor and single misdemeanor counts of indecent exposure, unlawful contact with a minor and invasion of privacy.
The charges were filed against Dent when Altoona police were dispatched to a residence along the 2100 block of Fourth Avenue on July 3, 2023, for a report of an indecent exposure and sexual assault.
As a part of their investigation, police learned that Dent and the victims’ family were friends, noting the then-7-year-old victim’s mother and Dent had known each other since she was a teenager. Officers discovered that the victim told her parents that Dent would show her his “private” parts, touch her and take photos of her while she was naked. Police later received a search warrant for Dent’s cellphone and found video showing Dent touching the victim, police reported.
At least one video shows Dent raping the child. Multiple pictures and videos of other underage girls were also located on Dent’s phone, court documents state.
During Dent’s sentencing hearing, Bernard described his actions as “despicable behavior to the nth degree.”
“You have a lot of reckoning to do within yourself and this community,” Bernard said. “There is something demented in taking pleasure like that sexually from a child.”
Bernard then said there was no point in imposing a high-cost fine as Dent would be receiving a lengthy sentence, so instead dictated that a $50 fine be allocated to each count receiving a guilty plea, resulting in a fine of about $3,150. Dent was given a 40-year payment plan for the fine.
Dent must undergo all assessment and evaluations stemming from the results of his sex offender assessment, as well as undergo a mental health evaluation, a cognitive behavioral therapy class and submit a DNA sample.
Mirror staff writer Rachel Foor-Musselman is at 814-946-7458.
