Trial ordered in molestation case

Victims of abuse alleged to have taken place this year are girls ages 2, 4 and 6

A Lawrence man charged with molesting three young girls liked to videotape children in public places around Lawrence, according to evidence presented Tuesday at a preliminary hearing.

Judge Paula Martin ruled there was enough evidence to try the 28-year-old man on charges that he raped a 2-year-old and inappropriately touched two other girls, ages 4 and 6, between February and April of this year. All of the victims were acquaintances.

Police arrested the man in early June after his wife found a homemade videotape of him having inappropriate contact with one of the children. In court Tuesday, Deputy Dist. Atty. Shelley Diehl played graphic excerpts from five videos allegedly found in the man’s home.

Also, Diehl showed a video of a sheriff’s office interview that indicated the man had been training his video camera on young girls around Lawrence.

“I know about you sitting outside the businesses in Lawrence and videotaping kids,” Detective Doug Woods of the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office told the man during the police interview.

During the recorded interview, Woods alluded to videotapes the man allegedly made at Deerfield School, outside a swimming pool and in the parking lot of the former Kmart. Woods asked the man how many years he had been filming children, and the man replied, “I haven’t been doing it that long.”

Later in the videotaped interview, the man told Woods he was molested by his older brother at age 11. He also told Woods that in 1996, after a conviction for inappropriately grabbing a woman, he completed a recovery program for sex offenders at Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center.

“The teacher in there, she let me graduate, but I didn’t think I was ready to go,” he said in the video.

At the end of the hearing Martin ruled that, even though it was unclear whether the man actually had intercourse with the 2-year-old, the evidence showed his genitals came into enough contact with hers to meet the legal definition of sexual “penetration” required for a case to be classified as a rape.

Defense attorney Jim George questioned whether his client willingly and knowingly waived his right to remain silent before the police interview. He told Martin he would file a brief on the matter within three weeks.

The man faces one count of rape, three counts of aggravated indecent liberties with a child and three counts of sexual exploitation of a child.

The Journal-World generally does not identify people charged with sex crimes unless they are convicted. The paper does not identify victims of sex crimes.