photo by: Kansas Sex Offender Registry

Ray C. Atkins Jr.

A Douglas County judge ruled on Tuesday that a man who was granted probation after he was convicted by a jury for rape has violated multiple terms of his probation, including repeatedly using cocaine and failing to get a required sex offender evaluation.

The man, Ray C. Atkins Jr., 24, of Lawrence, was convicted of one felony count of rape in August 2022 for an incident on July 19, 2019, in Lawrence. He was 19 at the time, and the girl he was convicted of raping was 17. Senior Judge James Fleetwood in November 2022 sentenced Atkins to nearly 13 years in prison but suspended that term to just five years of probation, a ruling that the Douglas County District Attorney’s Office has appealed, as the Journal-World reported.

On Tuesday, Judge Blake Glover first ruled that his court had jurisdiction over the probation violation matter despite the case being under appeal by both Atkins and the state. Atkins has appealed his conviction altogether while the state has appealed the sentence, arguing that the dispositional departure from prison to probation was illegal when Fleetwood ordered it and that crimes of “extreme sexual violence” are not eligible for departures.

Atkins’ attorney, Branden Smith, argued that the appeals court would need to issue a ruling on Atkins’ appeal before the probation matter could be addressed and that a remedy the state would seek in regard to the probation would have to be made afterward.

Deputy District Attorney Joshua Seiden said that suggesting the court didn’t have jurisdiction over the probation would make probation a “toothless” punishment if all a convicted person had to do was file an appeal.

Glover agreed that waiting wasn’t logical and said that it didn’t make sense to put probation matters on hold pending an appeal since an appeal could take years, in some cases, to resolve.

Seiden then called Atkins’ probation officer, Latisha Harmon, to testify.

Harmon said that Atkins had violated five of his probation conditions. She said he has failed to obey all of her orders; he has not obtained employment; he has failed multiple drug screens; he has not obtained a sex offender evaluation; and he has not complied with his alcohol and drug evaluation and treatment.

Harmon said she ordered Atkins to undergo the cognitive skills training class called Decision Points, but he has missed three classes since being enrolled. She said he called in once because he overslept, and the other two times he called in sick after the class was underway.

She said she also ordered him to connect with the court’s community service providers since he is not employed, but he has failed to do so.

Harmon said that Atkins has failed drug screens for cocaine six times since he was sentenced, with the first time being Nov. 4, 2022, immediately after he was sentenced. He failed for alcohol three times, and most recently, in June, Atkins failed a drug screen for cocaine, alcohol and fentanyl on the same test.

Atkins has not sought a sex offender evaluation or treatment that was recommended by clinical psychologist Gregory Nawalanic, Seiden said. Nawalanic’s testimony and recommendations at sentencing were key in securing Atkins’ departure to probation, he said.

Harmon said that Atkins reached out to court services to schedule a sex offender evaluation in August, weeks after the state had filed for revocation of his probation. Harmon tried to connect Atkins with an evaluator through the court, but a therapist was unavailable at that time.

“Nine months into his probation, facing a violation, he finally tried to get the evaluation,” Seiden said.

Lastly, Harmon said that Atkins has failed to comply with recommendations for alcohol and drug treatment. She said that he was enrolled in a treatment program that met twice a week, and between May and July he missed 10 of those classes.

Seiden said that some of Atkins’ issues in regard to attending cognitive classes or treatment could be excused if Atkins were employed.

Smith said that Atkins has applied for multiple jobs, but no one will hire him due to his rape conviction. Harmon said that her caseload as a probation officer is made entirely of people with felony convictions, many of whom have similar sex-crime convictions like Atkins, and the majority of her clients are employed locally.

Glover then ruled that Atkins had violated all five conditions set forth by the state and scheduled another hearing on Nov. 9, when he will determine whether the violations will result in revocation of Atkins’ probation.

He said that Fleetwood was the judge who heard Nawalanic’s testimony at sentencing and granted Atkins probation, but Fleetwood has not responded to emails asking him to weigh in on the issue or to oversee the proceedings. Glover said he would need to review the transcripts from the sentencing hearing to make his final decision.

Atkins is currently in custody at the Douglas County Jail and is being held without bond.