EX-GOP official sentenced in child sex case
A former official with the Hays County Republican Party has been sentenced to more than 400 years in prison after pleading guilty to child sexual abuse and child pornography charges.
Bo Michael Dresner, 44, pleaded guilty to 65 counts of continuous sexual abuse of multiple children and possession of child pornography with intent to promote, according to court records.
State District Judge Gary Steel sentenced Dresner to consecutive 75-year sentences on each of four counts of continuous sexual abuse of a child. He added stacked sentences from 10 to 20 years on the 61 child pornography charges for a total of 410 years.
Hays County District Attorney Kelly Higgins said in a news release Monday that Dresner changed his plea to guilty after his trial started, during the first day of testimony.
Dresner was arrested in 2019, after an investigation that began when a child reported she was molested by him, Higgins said. At the time, Dresner was a precinct chair and former sergeant-atarms for the Hays County Republican Party, the San Marcos Daily
Record reported.
During the criminal investigation, Dresner was stopped by Hays County sheriff’s deputies, the district attorney’s office said. He was on his way to the airport with a one-way ticket to Armenia, according to the district attorney’s office.
Investigators determined another child also was abused, and “hundreds of thousands of images of child pornography” were found on Dresner’s electronic devices, according to the district attorney’s office.
“Evidence also showed that one of the victims in the current case made allegations about Dresner in 2012,” Higgins said. “CPS was involved but the matter was not fully investigated by law enforcement and the victim was sent back to live with Dresner.”
The district attorney said Dresner also pleaded guilty to assaulting a 15-year-old in Minnesota in 2005.