photo by: Mugshot courtesy of KBI Sex Offenders Registry

Zachary Jonathan Lang is pictured with the Douglas County Judicial and Law Enforcement Center.

A Lawrence man was sentenced on Thursday in Douglas County District Court to 27.5 years in prison for sexually abusing two children under the age of 14.

Zachary Jonathan Lang, 38, pleaded guilty to four counts of aggravated criminal sodomy in September, and on Thursday Judge Sally Pokorny sentenced Lang to 165 months on each count, with the first two counts to run consecutively and the remaining counts to run concurrently for a total of 330 months.

The charges relate to years of abuse of two children in his care from June 2018 to June 2021, according to charging documents. The children were between the ages of 8 and 12 at the time of the abuse. Lang was originally facing 10 counts of aggravated indecent liberties with a child under the age of 14, and his original charging documents alleged that the abuse against the children began in 2009 when one of the children was first born and included a third child who was 4 at the time of the abuse.

The additional charges were dismissed as part of a plea agreement, according to court records.

At the sentencing hearing, Chief Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Tatum asked Pokorny to sentence Lang to the maximum time the charges allowed. Tatum said the abuse of one of the children began when the child was a 1-year-old and included anal sex. Tatum added that one of the victims was in attendance but had declined to speak.

Lang spoke briefly at the hearing and apologized for his actions. When he stood to speak, the victim left the room.

“I am a victim of sexual abuse myself, but that doesn’t give me the right to reenact that. I can only imagine the kinds of problems this has caused everyone,” Lang said before he started crying and sat down.

Pokorny swiftly issued the sentence after Lang spoke. She said that Lang had earned 388 days of time served and will be on lifetime post-release supervision when his sentence is finished. She said the court found that Lang has no criminal history according to a presentence investigation. Lang is also required to register as a sex offender for life, Pokorny said.

According to charging documents, Lang was originally charged with off-grid felonies, the most serious kind — the penalty for which is 25 years to life under Kansas law. The Journal-World has reached out to the Douglas County District Attorney’s Office for an explanation as to why the charges were changed to level-one felonies during the plea negotiations.

Lang’s defense attorney, Nicholas David, declined to comment about the case.

As the Journal-World previously reported, Lang told police at the time of his arrest “I need to place myself under arrest for child molestation,” and Lang went on to tell police that he had been a victim of molestation himself as a child and “It’s just something I’ve been dealing with my whole life and I brought it upon this family. Yeah, I need to be taken away from society, and I don’t know, hopefully, I can get help.”

Lang was scheduled for a jury trial in April, but the case went into criminal mediation and the trial was canceled. Lang’s plea came a few months later.

After the hearing, Lang was returned to the Douglas County Jail, where he has been held since his arrest on Oct. 4, 2021.