photo by: KBI Sex Offenders Registry

April Caitlin Ticer

A woman pleaded no contest on Thursday in Douglas County District Court to two child sex crimes as part of a plea deal in a case that originally involved dozens of charges.

April Caitlin Ticer, 25, of Kansas City, Kansas, pleaded no contest to two felony counts of attempted sexual exploitation of a child. She was charged in April with three counts of sexual exploitation of a minor by promoting a sexually explicit performance of a child under the age of 14 and an additional 50 counts of exploitation of a minor — possession of media of a child under the age of 18, according to charging documents.

As previously reported by the Journal-World, the charges came after Lawrence police were tipped off by the National Center for Missing and Endangered Children in August of 2020 to more than 600 images of children under the age of 8 on a laptop registered to an IP address in Lawrence. The laptop had two registered users, Ticer and her co-defendant Brandon Michael Torneden, according to a police affidavit.

Judge Sally Pokorny sentenced Torneden, 37, on May 4 to 12 months in prison for each of two counts of attempted sexual exploitation of a child, to run concurrently, after Torneden pleaded no contest to the charges, according to court records. Pokorny then suspended his sentence to 24 months of probation.

Both Ticer and Torneden are required to register as sex offenders for the rest of their lives. Ticer is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 26. She is currently free on a $25,000 bond.

photo by: KBI Sex Offenders Registry

Brandon Michael Torneden