photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

Brandon Warren Kissinger appears at his preliminary hearing on May 11, 2023, in Douglas County District Court. He was ordered to stand trial for multiple child sex crimes.

A Lawrence man was ordered Thursday to stand trial for multiple child sex crimes, and his attorney wants his alleged confession to be suppressed after the man was allegedly beaten by one of the child’s relatives.

Brandon Warren Kissinger, 29, is charged in Douglas County District Court with one count of aggravated sodomy and two counts of indecent liberties with a child, all felonies, according to charging documents. The incidents are alleged to have occurred between December 2020 and February 2021.

Kissinger was arrested in connection with the charges on May 7, 2021, and he is currently free on a $25,000 bond.

On Thursday, the girl Kissinger is alleged to have victimized testified that on at least three occasions Kissinger touched her inappropriately while she was in his bedroom playing video games or watching cartoons.

“He was a really nice friend at the time. We would play video games and watch anime,” she said.

Chief Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Tatum asked the girl why she never told anyone that he had touched her inappropriately.

“I didn’t want it to go downhill. I thought it was my fault. I wear shorts a lot,” the girl said.

She said the worst incident occurred when Kissinger proposed a bet over a video game. Kissinger offered her $20 if she could beat him at multiple rounds of Mortal Kombat on Xbox, she said.

After she lost the video game, she said Kissinger told her to perform a sex act on him.

“My head was being shoved. I just remember my whole mind being blank. I’m a child. I do what I’m told,” she said.

The girl said she didn’t tell anyone what happened until weeks later when she heard another girl connected to Kissinger, younger than her, had come down with a urinary tract infection and she knew that a UTI could be caused by sexual contact.

“And I was worried something was maybe happening to her and it was all my fault so I told (an adult) and the police got involved,” the girl testified.

Judge Stacey Donovan ordered Kissinger to stand trial on the charges, but Kissinger’s attorney, Angela Keck, said that the court should next take up her motion to suppress Kissinger’s statements to police made prior to his arrest.

In Keck’s motion to suppress, she writes that Kissinger had been diagnosed with autism and was suffering from a traumatic brain injury when police first approached him; she said that his statements to police were coerced. The motion states that Kissinger was allegedly attacked by a relative of the girl the day that the sexual assault was reported to police.

Keck wrote that the relative lured Kissinger to a local bar, attacked him with a bottle, knocked him to the ground, then repeatedly stomped on Kissinger’s head and cellphone.

The relative was later charged in Douglas County District Court with felony counts of aggravated battery and criminal damage. Those charges were later dismissed due to the “unavailability of a material witness,” according to court records.

Keck wrote that the attack sent Kissinger to the hospital and rendered him barely able to speak when police arrived at his home a few days later. She wrote that Kissinger attempted to assert his right to counsel but that police used coercive tactics to convince Kissinger to talk to them.

Tatum, in a response to the motion to suppress, wrote that Kissinger told police he was “in between counsel” at the time and that while Kissinger had trouble speaking and repeatedly stuttered through the conversation, he adequately denied some of the allegations made by the alleged victim and he confessed to the allegations that he has been charged with.

“There is no evidence to suggest that his intellect or background limited him in any way. To the contrary, he expressed himself clearly and indicated he fully understood the circumstances of his statement,” Tatum wrote.

Kissinger is next scheduled to appear in court on July 14 for Keck to argue her motion and to present testimony from a psychologist about Kissinger’s mental state.