Ex-water official pleads guilty in attack

? The former director of the Kansas Water Office pleaded guilty Monday to three felony charges stemming from a break-in and attack on a Topeka woman at her home last May.

Alan L. LeDoux, 55, of Holton, remained free on bond. Shawnee County District Judge Eric Rosen is to sentence him May 2 on one count each of aggravated kidnapping, aggravated criminal sodomy and aggravated burglary.

A rape charge was dismissed because it was the weakest charge, Shawnee County District Attorney Robert Hecht told the judge.

LeDoux headed the state’s water policy agency under former Gov. Bill Graves from 1995 until being placed on unpaid leave after his arrest last September, four months after the victim — whom LeDoux knew — reported the attack.

The victim testified during a preliminary hearing that her attacker broke into her home early in the morning of May 23, bound her wrists, blindfolded her and forced her to perform a sex act at knifepoint.

Hecht said Monday he would not object if LeDoux served the sentences on all three felonies at the same time rather than consecutively. If the sentences ran concurrently, the kidnapping sentence would govern because it is the longest, at 12 years and 11 months, with parole possible after 10 years.

Aggravated burglary carries a sentence of two years and eight months, while the sodomy charge for a first-time offender carries a maximum of nine years and nine months.

LeDoux, a longtime Republican Party activist in northeast Kansas, also served as chief legislative liaison for both Graves and former Gov. Mike Hayden.