photo by: Mike Yoder

The Douglas County Judicial and Law Enforcement Center, 111 E. 11th St.

A Lawrence man has been charged with multiple sex crimes against a girl who was 10 when the alleged abuse began.

Dustyn D. Polk, 42, made his first appearance Monday in Douglas County District Court, via video from the jail, after being arrested over the weekend on charges filed earlier this month.

Judge James George set Polk’s bond at $500,000 and appointed attorney Angela Keck to represent him.

When prosecutor Eve Kemple asked Polk whether he was able to read and understand the charges against him he said, “If I had a preference I would much rather have a lobotomy than face them.”

When asked whether he’d ever had an appointed attorney in the county, Polk said, “I’ve never committed a crime in my life.”

Polk is charged with six counts in all of rape, aggravated criminal sodomy and aggravated indecent liberties with a child under 14, according to the complaint. The alleged crimes began in 2015, when the victim was 10, and continued through earlier this year, according to the complaint.

The victim is female, Kemple said.

All the charges are off-grid level felonies, which carry the possibility of life in prison if convicted, the judge said.

The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office declined to release Polk’s mugshot to the Journal-World.