photo by: Douglas County Sheriff's Office

Jalil Lynn Brown

A former paraeducator at Lawrence Free State High School pleaded no contest Wednesday in Douglas County District Court to lewd touching of one child and to sexually exploiting another.

Jalil Lynn Brown, 29, of Lawrence, entered the plea agreement to one felony count of aggravated indecent liberties with a child and one felony count of sexual exploitation of a child.

Both charges are midlevel felonies. The indecent liberties charge is a level-four felony and is a presumed prison sentence, while the exploitation charge is a level-five felony that is on the borderline between prison and probation sentences for someone with no criminal history, according to Kansas sentencing guidelines.

Brown was originally charged with five counts of exploitation of a child by promoting an explicit performance, one count of aggravated indecent liberties with a child and one count of electronic solicitation, according to charging documents.

Chief Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Tatum said that the aggravated indecent liberties charge was connected to an incident on Jan. 15, when Brown gave a 15-year-old girl a ride to a friend’s house and while the girl was in the back seat he reached back from the driver’s seat and groped the girl’s leg in a sexual way.

Tatum said the exploitation charge was related to a video that Brown had on his phone when it was seized by police that showed another girl under the age of 18 in the nude.

As previously reported by the Journal-World, Brown worked as a special education paraeducator at Lawrence Free State High School from Sept. 9, 2019, until his termination on Jan. 25 of this year, according to the Lawrence school district.

Brown was arrested on April 28. His sentencing date has not been scheduled.