photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

The Douglas County Judicial and Law Enforcement Center is pictured in March of 2022. The center houses the Douglas County District Court and other county services.

A man charged with rape waived is right to a preliminary hearing on Thursday in Douglas County District Court.

The man, Marlon G. Clark Jr., 19, of Kansas City, Kansas, is charged with one count of rape, which is a level-one felony. The charge relates to an incident on June 11, 2021, when he is accused of engaging in sexual intercourse with an 18-year-old woman without her consent.

Clark appeared via Zoom while his defense attorney, Branden Smith, appeared in person. Smith said that he was working with the District Attorney’s Office to engage in criminal mediation starting in July.

In an affidavit supporting his arrest, Clark is alleged to have had sex with the woman on a night that the woman had been drinking heavily while Clark did not drink at all. The woman showed police multiple videos of herself from that night in which she appeared intoxicated, including a video of Clark and the woman in bed together, according to the affidavit.

At the end of the night, the woman said she crawled into a bed between Clark and another friend and she fell asleep. She said she woke up when Clark grabbed her hair and began to have sex with her; she said she froze and was unable to stop him.

According to the affidavit, an officer interviewed Clark, who said the sex was consensual and that after a party the woman had invited Clark back to a friend’s apartment. Clark said they were at the apartment for two hours while the woman sobered up and at the end of the night he offered to sleep on the couch but the woman invited him to sleep in the bed with her and the friend.

Clark said the woman told him she was interested in sex with him in the past over Snapchat messages and that she gave her consent that night. Clark said he believed the woman reported the incident as a rape because her boyfriend had found out about it.

The woman had a sexual assault examination at Stormont Vail hospital in Topeka the day after the incident and was interviewed by Lawrence police the following Monday, according to the affidavit.

Clark is currently free on a $25,000 bond and is next scheduled for court on Aug. 19 for an arraignment and update on the mediation process.