Rock Falls man charged with home invasion

ROCK FALLS – A Rock Falls man paroled last year is back behind bars, charged with home invasion, after police say he attacked an acquaintance in his home earlier this month.

Travis J. Dennison, 28, was arrested at 2:15 p.m. Sunday at a rural Rock Falls home. He faces 6 to 30 years in prison if convicted.

Dennison also was arrested on an Illinois Department of Corrections warrant for parole violation. He was paroled in July after serving less than a year of a 2-year sentence for selling marijuana in Whiteside County. He also was serving a concurrent 1-year sentence for domestic battery.

A 32-year-old Rock Falls man called police at 8:30 p.m. Jan. 13 and said he had been attacked in his home in the 600 block of Fourth Avenue. He was lying on the couch when two men – later identified as Dennison and Chad Lawson – kicked down his front door and began punching him, police said.

He and Dennison “wrestled” down the hall before Dennison and Lawson left, he told police.

The man did not want to press charges against Lawson, 44, of Sterling, because Lawson did not hit him, Chief Mike Kuelper said, adding that the three are acquaintances. Kuelper did not know what prompted the incident.