A Lawrence man was sentenced Monday to three years of probation for a sex crime against a teenage girl. Lawrence police arrested Randy Lee Flaherty, 36, in May, and he was charged in Douglas County District Court with attempted rape. He pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of aggravated sexual battery on Sept. 9. During the plea hearing, Flaherty told the judge he had gotten in bed with the teen victim and ...
Four inmates voted from the Douglas County Jail in the 2020 general election, according to the sheriff’s office. As the Journal-World has reported, staff members at the jail helped inmates register and request advance ballots. Four additional inmates requested to register to vote, or requested to vote but were not registered, after the Oct. 13 voter registration deadline, said Jenn Hethcoat, public ...
A Tonganoxie man was sentenced Tuesday to six years in prison for attempting to meet a 13-year-old for sex, according to the Douglas County district attorney’s office. Jason L. Bledsoe, 40, used text and email between Sept. 16 and Oct. 12, 2019 to attempt to solicit and entice a person he believed to be a 13-year-old girl to meet him, said Dorothy Kliem, trial assistant for the DA’s office, via email ...
At the end of a two-day hearing Tuesday, a defense attorney for a man convicted in a Lawrence rape case pleaded with the judge to grant his client a new trial, arguing that the man's attorney in the first trial failed to adequately represent him — a claim that prosecutors dispute. That ruling will come at a later date, though. The defense and the prosecution will submit written findings of fact and ...
Updated at 7:11 p.m. Monday: A defense attorney and a forensic psychologist both testified Monday that if they’d known about additional evidence, they would have handled a Lawrence rape case differently. In January 2019, Albert Wilson, now 24, was convicted of one count of rape in connection with an incident from Sept. 11, 2016, and the jury hung on a second count. The Kansas Court of Appeals sent the case ...
More than seven months since the coronavirus pandemic hit the Midwest, new issues continue to emerge and raise questions about public access to Douglas County District Court. One such issue presents a twist on set precedent: Defendants are entitled to public hearings, but if the alleged victims’ faces are not broadcast on the online livestream during their testimony, is the hearing still public? In an ...