Booking photo for Otto “Dewey” Kennedy (Courtesy: Cache County Jail)
LOGAN — A 65-year-old former Utah man convicted of sexually abusing a 2-year-old girl in Preston, Idaho has confessed to molesting a River Heights teenager in 2010. Otto “Dewey” Kennedy accepted a plea deal that could keep him behind bars for the rest of his life.
According to prosecutors, in February 2019, Kennedy was arrested by Preston City police after he was caught in the act of molesting the 2-year-old child. He was later convicted and sentenced to serve between 5-10 years in prison.
During the investigation, the officer learned of an older case where Kennedy had sexually assaulted a 13-year-old River Heights girl. The victim had said she had been molested multiple times. There were also allegations that he kept child pornography in the home, which Kennedy later denied.
The case however was later closed because deputies could not locate the suspect.
While Kennedy was facing charges in Idaho, he was interviewed by a detective at the Cache County Sheriff’s Office, where he admitted to engaging in a “sexual relationship” with the girl for a two-month period, saying the girl “would not leave him alone.”
The detective also received a letter, allegedly written by Kennedy to the teenage victim. In it, he apologized for what he did and stated, “I had no right…to touch you in that manner.”
Kennedy was originally charged with seven counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child, a first-degree felony. During a hearing Monday in Logan’s 1st District Court, he pleaded guilty to one count, under the condition that prosecutors dismiss the six remaining charges. The case had been scheduled for a jury trial in November.
Kennedy remains in the Cache County Jail. He is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 2, where he could face up to an additional 15 years in prison.