photo by: Douglas County Sheriff's Office

Jason Lee Bledsoe, pictured October 2019

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 Wednesday.

Bledsoe had arranged the meeting for the night of Oct. 12, 2019, “in order to commit aggravated criminal sodomy, rape, and aggravated indecent liberties with a child,” Kliem said. Lawrence police arrested Bledsoe at 4 a.m. Oct. 13, 2019, in the 500 block of Tennessee Street, the Journal-World has reported.

Bledsoe was initially charged Oct. 29, 2019, in Douglas County District Court with electronic solicitation of a child, a level-1 felony. On Sept. 15, he pleaded guilty to a less severe charge of attempting the same crime, a level-3 felony.

Kliem said that once Bledsoe is released from prison, he will have 36 months of post-release supervision, in accordance with the plea agreement. He will also be required to register as a sex offender for 25 years, Kliem said.

The Journal-World requested the police affidavit supporting Bledsoe’s arrest shortly after he was first charged. Online court records indicate that a judge ordered that the affidavit be sealed and not disclosed to the public. Such orders generally contain a brief explanation of why the affidavit has been sealed; however, that order is not included in the public case file.

Bledsoe was released from the Douglas County Jail on $75,000 surety bond the same day of his arrest, according to the jail’s booking log. He was taken into custody after his sentencing hearing Tuesday, according to jail records.

Bledsoe’s attorney, Carl Cornwell, did not respond to an email seeking comment for this article Wednesday.