A Missouri man will stand trial for allegedly having a sexual relationship with a Lawrence junior high school student, a judge ordered Monday.
The 48-year-old suspect was bound over for trial following a preliminary hearing in Douglas County district court. He is charged with committing three counts of aggravated indecent liberties against the girl, who was in eighth grade when the alleged crimes began.
"I guess I wanted to make him happy," the girl testified during Monday's hearing.
The relationship began, the girl said, when the Hartville, Mo., man responded to an online classified advertisement she had posted. She communicated with him at first through e-mails, but soon he gave her a toll-free telephone number to call, she said.
Recounted in court were at least four sexual encounters, which the girl, now a 17-year-old high school junior, said spanned from the summer of 1998 to the summer of 2000, but she suggested that more had occurred.
"I really don't remember. I lost count," she said when Assistant District Atty. Trent Krug asked her specifically how many times she and the defendant had sex.
The Journal-World generally does not identify suspects in sex crimes until conviction.
Defense attorney Shelley Bock, however, asked the girl about her admitted problems with lying, noting she had advertised herself on the Internet as a "21-year-old stripper."
He also questioned her credibility, noting she was nonspecific about many details.
Douglas County judge Jack Murphy scheduled the defendant's arraignment for April 2
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