photo by: Mackenzie Clark

The Douglas County Judicial and Law Enforcement Center, which houses Douglas County District Court and a number of other criminal justice services at 111 E. 11th St., is pictured April 8, 2020.

A Lawrence man accused of sex crimes against children who were living in his residential properties is facing criminal charges in Douglas County.

But if, or when, he may be formally charged with those crimes remains to be seen because he is currently in federal prison for an unrelated child sex crime.

Mark D. Strand, 69, was convicted of knowingly attempting to coerce and entice a minor to engage in sexual activity after he attempted to solicit sex with a child through an internet advertisement that was posted by an undercover FBI agent based in Miami, according to federal court documents.

According to a federal affidavit, Strand began messaging the undercover agent in April 2017 and continued until he solidified plans to travel to Florida. He was arrested in July 2019 when he met with the agents in Miami.

Strand was convicted of the charge after he accepted a plea deal in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida in December 2019, the documents show. He was sentenced on Feb. 26, 2020, to 12 years in prison for the conviction and ordered to be held in a facility near Lawrence, according to a ruling from U.S. District Judge Cecilia Altonaga.

As part of the plea deal, a charge of attempted sex trafficking of a minor was dismissed. According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons registry, Strand is being held at a federal prison in Texarkana, Texas.

But Strand is accused of committing acts of sexual assault against real children prior to his federal crime.

As the Journal-World previously reported, Strand is the landlord who allegedly sexually assaulted children in the care of Cormick G. Ferrell, 42, who allegedly allowed the assaults to happen in exchange for rent between 2014 and 2018.

Ferrell was recently bound over for trial on two counts of aggravated human trafficking, which are off-grid felonies, and aggravated child endangerment, a lower-level felony, for the alleged scheme. If convicted, Ferrell would face life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for 25 years for the human-trafficking charges.

In a sentencing memorandum for his federal case, Strand’s attorney, Celeste S. Higgins, said Strand was facing allegations from “his former tenants” in Lawrence.

Who is Mark Strand?

Strand is a longtime resident of Lawrence who worked at the University of Kansas for 20 years.

Erinn Barcomb-Peterson, a spokeswoman for the university, said he was employed by the university from November 1997 until he retired in December 2017. He worked as a building and facility manager for the university’s School of Business.

Strand was also a landlord for a few properties in Lawrence. According to Douglas County real estate records, Strand owned four properties in Lawrence: two homes and two apartment units. He purchased all four properties between 2005 and 2016, the records show.

Despite a LinkedIn profile for Strand showing he is a real estate owner and property manager for “Meadowlark Management,” a company with that name in Lawrence told the Journal-World that it had no business relationship with Strand.

“We can confirm that Meadowlark Property Management does NOT manage any properties owned by Mark D. Strand,” a general manager for Meadowlark Property Management said in an email to the Journal-World. “We have never met or worked with Mr. Strand.”

Strand sold two of his properties, the apartment units, in September 2019 and January 2020, after his arrest on the federal charge. He continues to own the two homes, according to the real estate records.

Federal case

According to an affidavit supporting Strand’s arrest on the federal charge, in April 2017, Strand responded to a Craigslist advertisement that used language commonly associated with individuals seeking children for sex.

In his email to the undercover agent, Strand, who used the alias Grant North, said he was looking for “taboo” sexual activity. Through conversation with the agent, Strand expressed interest in sexual activity with a purported 9-year-old girl. He discussed personal details about himself and the possibility of his traveling to Miami. He shared a photo of himself that had been published on KU’s website, which showed his real name, phone, email and home address. The agent noted Strand appeared to be an older man with gray hair and a beard.

He continued to discuss the plan with the agents until February 2018. Conversations then stopped for about a year, but Strand re-initiated the conversation in May 2019, when he said he was now retired and wished to travel to Florida.

Strand again expressed interest in sexual activity with the purported child, who the agents told him would have been 12 at the time. Strand told the agents he would pay $100 to engage in sexual activity with the child.

On July 12, 2019, Strand traveled to Miami Beach, where he met an undercover agent and again agreed to the plan for sexual activity with a child and was arrested.

Douglas County charges

While Ferrell is bound over for trial for crimes stemming from incidents with Strand, it’s unclear if or when Strand will be formally charged in Douglas County.

Jill Jess, a spokeswoman for the Douglas County District Attorney’s Office, told the Journal-World that charges have been filed against Strand stemming from the incidents related to Ferrell’s charges.

However, the Douglas County charges filed against Strand are currently under seal, meaning they are not viewable by the public. When asked when the charges may be unsealed or when Strand may be expected to be formally charged with those crimes, Jess declined to comment.

If Strand is not charged until after he is released from federal prison, the earliest he could be charged is late 2029. He is scheduled to be released on Oct. 1 of that year, when he would be 77 years old, according to the federal prison registry.

The FBI declined to release Strand’s federal booking photo to the Journal-World.