photo by: Mugshot courtesy of the Douglas County Sheriff's Office

Derek Sean Conner is pictured with the Douglas County Judicial and Law Enforcement Center.

A Eudora man was granted two years of probation Monday for aggravated battery in a case in which he was originally charged with raping a woman after a party at his home last year.

The man, Derek Sean Conner, 34, pleaded no contest in March to two counts of aggravated battery as part of a plea agreement with the state. The plea reduced a felony rape charge to two felony counts of aggravated battery. The charges are in connection with an incident Jan. 23, 2022, when a 26-year-old woman claimed he sexually assaulted her when she was incapable of giving consent at the man’s home after a party, as the Journal-World reported.

Judge James McCabria sentenced Conner on Monday to 12 months on each count of aggravated battery for a total of 24 months in prison, which he then suspended to 24 months of probation, in accordance with Kansas sentencing guidelines. Conner has no prior criminal convictions that affected his sentencing. McCabria ordered Conner to undergo a drug and alcohol evaluation and mental health evaluation and to follow any treatment recommendations made by those evaluators or by his probation officer.

During Conner’s plea hearing in March, Conner’s defense attorney, Christopher Joseph, and Deputy District Attorney Joshua Seiden jointly recommended that Conner be sentenced to 24 months of supervised probation and that there be no finding of a sexual motivation, meaning Conner would not be required to register as a sex offender.