Man Who Attacked Former US Senator Martha McSally Given Suspended Sentence

Former Sen. Martha McSally of Arizona is followed by a man while jogging at Tom Hanafan River’s Edge Park in Council Bluffs, Iowa, on Nov. 8, 2023. Courtesy of Council Bluffs Police Department

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.

Police said that surveillance footage showed Henton was following McSally across the Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge before attacking her.

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.

McSally said in an Oct. 31 social media post that she was glad that she fought and chased him because it “led to a profoundly different outcome—for both me and the community.”

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.

McSally served in the U.S. Air Force from 1988 until 2010 and rose to the rank of colonel before entering politics. She is the first female fighter pilot to fly in combat for the United States.

During a 2019 U.S. Senate hearing, McSally disclosed that she had been raped by a superior officer during her time in the U.S. Air Force. McSally said she remained silent about that assault incident because she felt ashamed and didn’t trust the judicial system at the time.

In an Instagram video posted on the day of the 2023 attack, McSally said that it felt like she had taken her power back, as the attacker ended up running from her.

“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.

McSally served two terms in the House before narrowly losing a bid to represent Arizona in the Senate against then-Democrat Sen. Kyrsten Sinema.

Lorenz Duchamps and The Associated Press contributed to this report.