COUNCIL BLUFFS, IA(AZFamily/AP/WOW) — A judge gave a man probation and a suspended sentence Thursday after he pleaded guilty attacking the former US senator Martha McSally as she ran along a riverside park in western Iowa.

Dominic Henton, 26, received a suspended sentence and probation for the Nov. 8, 2023 attack on the former Arizona U.S. senator.

McSally, who served in the Senate from 2019 to 2020, had been jogging in a park along the Missouri River in Council Bluffs, Iowa, when a man assaulted her, she said in an Instagram video posted that day .

McSally said the man followed her over a footbridge and then grabbed her and tried to grope her, but she was able to escape and chase him into a thicket.

Aided by security camera footage, investigators identified her attacker and arrested Henton the next day in Omaha, Nebraska, across the river from Council Bluffs.

Henton pleaded guilty and was released from prison after serving about 90 days. He received a one-year suspended sentence, as well as two years of probation.

Pottawattamie County Prosecutor Matt Wilber said Omaha World-Herald that Henton will go to a residential treatment center in Council Bluffs and participate in a sex offender treatment program.

Shortly after the incident, McSally posted a video on social media saying a man grabbed her “in a bear hug” and then molested and fondled her until she fought him off. She said she threw her water bottle at him and chased him into the brush, where he hid before running away.

“I’m fine. I was in a fight, flight or freeze situation and I chose to fight,” she said in an Instagram post.

During Thursday’s hearing, McSally expressed that Henton deserves additional prison time for the trauma and pain he caused her.

“I was in pain and sick following the attack. Understandably, the trauma affected my body and soul, she said. “Becoming a contributing member of society, which would mean taking full responsibility for these actions and decisions, apologizing for assaulting me, which Henton just requested versus resisting the sex offender treatment program.” , said the former US senator.

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