Suspect accused of intent to abduct 13-year-old

A prosecutor argued Friday in court that evidence showed a man planned to possibly abduct a Lawrence junior high student in December.

At the March 24 trial of Stephen R. Stout, Kevin Graham, an assistant Kansas attorney general, said the state plans to introduce evidence that police found a loaded gun in Stout’s car, from which he had removed the vehicle’s license plate.

Prosecutors allege Stout, 47, attempted to lure a 13-year-old girl into his car on Dec. 20 after school at West Junior High School, and three other girls reported to police that he exposed himself to them while he was in the vehicle.

The girls ran away and called police.

Stout, who has claimed residence in Parks, Ark. – but court records list an Olathe address – faces felony charges of aggravated indecent solicitation of a child, three counts of lewd and lascivious behavior and fleeing from police.

Graham also argued that the state should be able to introduce evidence at trial about two of Stout’s past criminal cases. He was granted diversion in a 2000 Lawrence exposure case. He also pleaded guilty in 2006 to misdemeanor sexual misconduct in Clay County, Mo.

Graham said that case involved a April 8, 2005, incident also outside a junior high school. Stout also removed the license plate from his car and exposed himself to two children.

“The similarity between that incident and the (current one alleged in Lawrence) is stunning,” Graham said.

But Stout’s defense attorney, J.C. Gilroy, said jurors will have enough evidence about the Dec. 20 incident to make up their own minds without hearing about the two past cases.

“The prejudicial value is greater than the probative value,” Gilroy said.

The two sides dispute how the incident unfolded outside West Junior High, including what Stout said to the girl and why he was near the school.

Douglas County District Judge Michael Malone will make rulings before March 20 about what evidence can be introduced at the trial.