(Aurora, Ind.) – Former Aurora Police assistant chief Dennis Lewis will spend the maximum of eight years in prison.

Dennis Lewis, 53, was sentenced to seven years in state prison on Thursday after pleading to one count of felony child solicitation. Switzerland County Jail

Lewis, 53, was sentenced Thursday morning in Dearborn Superior Court I to eight years with one year suspended. One-hundred forty-seven days will be credited for time already served.

Lewis’ sentence will be served in a state prison. He has been held in the Switzerland County Jail because of his former status as an officer in Dearborn County.

He must register as a sex offender upon his release.

“The judge evaluated the evidence well and presented a just decision,” said Dearborn-Ohio County Prosecutor Aaron Negangard.

Lewis pleaded guilty in August to one count of felony Child Solicitation in exchange for having four other counts dismissed. He still had to admit to the dismissed charges.

A 25-year law enforcement veteran, Lewis was arrested last April for two internet chats where he solicited sex to undercover police officers posing as 13-year-old girls. The chats happened in December 2009 and January 2010.

Negangard said earlier that during the course of the investigation into Lewis’ chats it was discovered that there may have been another online sexual conversation with an actual teenage girl younger than 13, not a police officer.