photo by: Chris Cond/Journal-World

Griffin D. Oxley is pictured during his sentencing hearing on June 5, 2023, in Douglas County District Court. Oxley pleaded no contest to one count of aggravated sexual battery and was sentenced to 36 months of probation with an underlying prison sentence of 32 months.

A Eudora man was sentenced to probation Monday in connection with an incident in 2020 in which he was alleged to have sexually assaulted a woman in her home.

The man, Griffin D. Oxley, 22, entered a no contest plea to one felony count of aggravated sexual battery in April, according to court records. He was originally charged with one count of rape of a 34-year-old woman around 8 p.m. at the woman’s home on July 28, 2020. The rape charge was reduced to sexual battery as part of a plea agreement with the state.

Court records indicate that Oxley lived in Eudora at the time of the incident and Overland Park at the time of his arrest, and he currently lives in Lawrence.

As part of Oxley’s plea agreement, he will be required to register as a sex offender for 25 years.

During the hearing, Chief District Attorney Jennifer Tatum read a letter to the court from Oxley’s victim. The woman attended the hearing but said she was not comfortable speaking.

In the letter, the woman wrote that she had spent weeks thinking about what to say about Oxley’s sentence.

“We have reached the end of the legal part but not the end of the healing process,” Tatum read from the letter.

She wrote that women are often not believed when reporting sexual assault and noted that few sex assaults result in a conviction. She wrote that when someone asked her what justice looked like, her thought was that Oxley admitting what he did and being held accountable would be a start.

“Trauma has a way of blocking things out, but it still lives in our body,” Tatum read.

The woman wrote that she has forgiven Oxley, not for his sake but for her own healing.

Oxley’s attorney, Adam Zentner, argued for probation and said that Oxley has no criminal history, has become a productive member of society and now has a wife and child.

Oxley’s wife asked the court to grant Oxley probation so that he could continue to provide for their family.

Oxley then addressed the court and echoed his wife’s sentiments about needing to continue to work. He said he works for a trash disposal service and will take any steps necessary to become a better person and to “right the wrongs” he has committed.

Judge Stacey Donovan said she would grant Oxley probation and that his sentence was a “border box” finding on the Kansas sentencing guidelines, meaning that it was up to her discretion to decide whether prison was appropriate. The state did not object to that assessment. Donovan sentenced Oxley to 32 months in prison, which she then suspended to 36 months of probation.

Donovan ordered Oxley to complete a sex offender education course and she said that getting counseling right away would better promote Oxley’s reformation.

As the Journal-World reported, Oxley invited himself over to the woman’s house to show her his dogs. The woman had met Oxley a few times before and allowed him inside. To her surprise, Oxley had brought a six pack of beer, according to a police affidavit in support of Oxley’s arrest.

While at the kitchen table, Oxley “leaped across the table” and grabbed the woman “right at my face and kissed me,” she said. The woman said Oxley then wrapped his arms around her and she fell out of her chair into the living room, where he raped her, according to the affidavit

The woman said Oxley repeatedly apologized, at one point saying his girlfriend did not love him.

While interviewing the woman after the incident, police asked her to provide a written statement, but she could not finish writing and “ended up on the floor crying.” Police took the woman to LMH Health, where a sexual assault examination was conducted.

Oxley was arrested on the rape charge on May 8, 2021. He was released on a $45,000 surety bond shortly after his arrest.