photo by: Douglas County Sheriff's Office

Jason Edward Dallinga

A Lawrence man on Thursday pleaded guilty in Douglas County District Court to two sex crimes against a 7-year-old girl and plans to plead to a third after he is sentenced. He has agreed to serve more than 28 years in prison as part of the plea.

The man, Jason Edward Dallinga, 41, was originally charged with four counts of aggravated indecent liberties with a child by engaging in lewd touching to satisfy a sexual desire, according to charging documents. The charges relate to incidents between January 2022 and October 2022, as the Journal-World reported.

During a plea hearing on Thursday, Chief Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Tatum said that Dallinga’s plea was unusual because Dallinga has agreed to plead to one count of aggravated indecent liberties with a child and one count of indecent liberties with a child, both felonies, and that at his sentencing hearing for those charges he would plead to another count of aggravated indecent liberties with a child.

Tatum said that Dallinga’s criminal history score would then be recalculated based on the first two convictions and he could be sentenced to a longer prison sentence on the third. The state will recommend a total of 342 months for all three charges, or 28.5 years.

Tatum said that Dallinga’s victim first reported the abuse after she was injured at school and had a meeting with the school nurse, to whom she reported Dallinga’s actions. Tatum said Dallinga later admitted to police that he was sexually attracted to the girl.

Judge Stacey Donovan asked Dallinga if he understood what he was agreeing to by entering the plea and Dallinga said he did. Donovan ordered him to register as a sex offender for life and asked if he had any questions about registration.

“I have questions about how to do that (register) when I get out, but that’s a few decades from now,” Dallinga said.

Dallinga is scheduled to be sentenced on July 28, when the court will conduct a sentencing and another plea hearing followed by the second sentencing. Dallinga has been in custody at the Douglas County Jail since his arrest on Dec. 29, 2022, and is being held on a $250,000 bond.