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Tracy D. Releford has been jailed in Douglas County a year and a half for what began as a human trafficking case involving a teen.

After a series of damaging blows to the state’s case — most recently last week — all counts against Releford now have been dropped.

Releford, 51, of Lawrence, was arrested following an August 2016 meeting with the 16-year-old alleged victim. The encounter started in Lawrence, traveled to Kansas City, Mo., and ended back in Lawrence.

Releford had been charged with commercial sexual exploitation of a child, a felony; promoting the sale of sexual relations, a felony; and buying sexual relations, a misdemeanor.

At Releford’s Feb. 20 preliminary hearing, Judge Peggy Kittel found there wasn’t probable cause to order him to trial on those felonies. With only the misdemeanor count standing, court documents indicate the state dismissed the entire case effective on Wednesday, Feb. 21.

The state’s witness didn’t appear for the preliminary hearing, Jill Spurling, trial assistant for the Douglas County District Attorney’s Office, said in an email. Spurling said the state tried to go forward based on the witness’s prior recorded testimony, but the court found the state hadn’t met its burden to prove the witness was unavailable.

The case was dismissed without prejudice.

“The State dismissed the case and will consider refiling the case if and when the witness is located,” Spurling said.

Tracy D. Releford

Releford’s original headlining charge — one count of aggravated human trafficking, a felony — was at first accepted but later dismissed by Kittel in March 2017, following a motion to reconsider by Releford’s appointed attorney, Michael Clarke.

The state appealed that decision but, in December 2017, the Kansas Court of Appeals affirmed that Kittel was correct to drop the charge.

The appeals court cited statute language.

“Probable cause is absent that Releford recruited, harbored, transported, provided, or obtained (the victim) ‘for the purpose of subjecting [her] to involuntary servitude or forced labor,'” the court’s opinion said. The state described the victim’s testimony as “being heavily persuaded by Releford to have sex. It cannot, however, be characterized as forced labor or involuntary servitude.”

While the human-trafficking charge appeal was pending, the state temporarily dismissed Releford’s other initial charges.

The state, represented by prosecutor Alice Walker, refiled the charges in January — minus human trafficking — so the Feb. 20 preliminary hearing was technically a new case.

The first time the case was filed, Releford’s bond was $250,000, according to court records. When the case was refiled, his bond was lowered to $10,000.

Releford has been in custody throughout.

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Despite his Douglas County case being dropped, however, Releford is still not free.

Upon his release from jail in Douglas County, Releford will be transferred to Missouri custody, Sgt. Kristen Channel of the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office said.

The Journal-World was not able to find more information this week about the nature of that Missouri warrant. Channel referred questions to Missouri, and it was not clear from online court records what case is associated with it.

However, Releford is on parole for a murder conviction in Missouri, according to the Missouri Department of Corrections Division of Probation and Parole. According to the department, his conviction was for second-degree murder and armed criminal action in Jackson County.

Releford’s human trafficking case made regional news when it was first filed, in part because he is the father of a former University of Kansas basketball player from Kansas City, Mo., Travis Releford.

In a 2013 Journal-World feature on Travis Releford, the then-senior on the KU team said his father was serving a life sentence in the murder and had been in prison 20 years at that time, but was still hoping to be paroled.

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According to the appeals court summary of the underlying incident in Tracy Releford’s Douglas County case:

Releford alleged he was propositioned outside a Lawrence liquor store by two females who offered sex for $50. They accompanied him to Swope Park in Kansas City, Mo., to meet up with another man. Releford said he thought the females were 21 and 19. Actually they were 20 and 16.

At Swope Park, the older woman had sex with the other man and was paid $25. Releford engaged in a sex act with the teen but didn’t engage in intercourse and, as such, refused to pay her when they got back to Lawrence. The teen then took his keys and announced she was 16 and that she was calling police.

The teen claimed sex was never part of a transaction. She said Releford offered to give them a ride and help them with “rent money,” which he had to borrow from a friend in Kansas City. She said that while in Kansas City, Releford effectively persuaded her to have sex with him. Back in Lawrence the teen said she took his keys when he and the older female started arguing about the money.