Dubuque man gets suspended sentence in Cerro Gordo County lascivious acts case

MASON CITY — A Dubuque man charged with sexual abuse in Cerro Gordo County and pleaded guilty to a lesser charge has been given a suspended prison sentence and probation.  

34-year-old Bennett Gonyier was arrested in July on one count of second-degree sexual abuse, a Class B felony punishable by up to 25 years in prison, after Mason City police accused him of sexually abusing a child under the age of five at a home in northeastern Mason City sometime between July 2nd and July 6th.

Gonyier originally had been ruled incompetent to stand trial, but after treatment, a judge ruled in December that his competency had been restored . Gonyier then as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors in January pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of lascivious acts with a child, a Class C felony.

District Judge Blake Norman on Monday sentenced Gonyier to a ten-year suspended prison sentence, placed him on five years probation, and ordered that he spend 180 days in a residential facility.