photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

Kalim Akeba Lloyd Dowdell at his trial on Sept. 18, 2023, in Douglas County District Court. Dowdell is accused of raping a woman when she was asleep after the two had spent the evening drinking together.

A Lawrence man who was previously granted diversion for sending nude pictures to a New Zealand blogger went to trial on Monday on a rape charge in connection with a University of Kansas freshman.

The man, Kalim Akeba Lloyd Dowdell, 26, is charged in Douglas County District Court with one felony count of rape of a woman who was incapable of consent due to being to intoxicated or unconscious, according to charging documents. The charge is in connection with an incident on Aug. 25, 2018.

Dowdell was charged in March of 2021 and has been free on a $50,000 surety bond since shortly after his arrest.

In opening statements on Monday, Senior Assistant District Attorney David Greenwald said that the woman was a freshman at KU and attended a sorority party the night of Aug. 24, 2018, where she hoped to meet a KU basketball player. While at the party, the woman did meet one of the team members but also met Dowdell, who was with the player.

photo by: Contributed

Senior Assistant District Attorney David Greenwald

The woman and Dowdell began drinking together and took selfies together. They went to a local bar where Dowdell “continued to feed the woman drinks,” Greenwald told the jury. The woman and Dowdell left the bar and had a few more drinks at McCarthy Hall, 1741 Naismith Drive, at the basketball player’s dorm, before the woman invited Dowdell back to her dorm.

Greenwald said that the two were in bed together kissing but when Dowdell tried to go beyond kissing, the woman said she wasn’t interested in sex that night, to which Dowdell “huffed, sighed, then rolled over,” in acceptance, and the woman went to sleep.

The woman was then awakened by Dowdell, naked and on top of her, Greenwald said; she told him “no,” but Dowdell ignored her until he finished. Dowdell then asked the woman to escort him out of the building because he had to sign out of the building’s security checkpoint. It was there that the woman learned that Dowdell had given her a false name, Greenwald said.

The woman received a text message a couple of weeks later from someone claiming to be Dowdell’s girlfriend, Greenwald said, and asked what happened between the two of them. The woman told the woman via text message that Dowdell had sex with her while she was asleep.

Greenwald said that the woman reported the assault to a therapist months later, in December of 2018, and the woman also posted a narrative of the story on an anonymous blog post in April of 2019. She eventually told police of the incident in September of 2020 after the woman had seen Dowdell multiple times while doing routine activities, Greenwald said.

Dowdell’s defense attorney, Adam Hall, said in his opening statement that Dowdell’s story was mostly the same but that the woman wasn’t upset about having sex with Dowdell, but that she regretted that she had sex with someone who had a girlfriend and was upset when she learned of Dowdell’s past.

photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

Kalim Akeba Lloyd Dowdell is pictured with his defense attorney, Adam Hall, Monday, Sept. 18, 2023, in Douglas County District Court.

Hall said that the woman’s friends told police that they saw the woman spending time with Dowdell and that when the woman and Dowdell left the party together, they weren’t concerned. Hall said one friend said that the woman had told her the two “went all the way” and that Dowdell and the woman remained friendly over the next few weeks.

Hall said the woman decided that it was a rape only when Dowdell’s girlfriend confronted her via text message. The girlfriend asked the woman how she knew Dowdell and said she noticed that the woman was “liking” Dowdell’s social media posts.

The girlfriend asked the woman in a text whether she had sex with Dowdell and if they had used a condom. Hall said the woman confirmed that the two had sex and the woman added that “she does not have anything so it wasn’t an issue” but that they did use a condom.

When the woman later in the exchange told the girlfriend that Dowdell had sex with her while she was asleep, the woman responded “WTF rape?” and the woman replied “I don’t know if I would go that far.”

Hall said the woman changed her story out of guilt and that she was also angry with Dowdell for lying about his name — he had called himself “Lee” but when she checked him out of the security checkpoint that night she saw his true name, Kalim.

“She then Googled him and immediately regretted her actions,” Hall said.

Dowdell was in the news in 2015-2017 for a series of vulgar text messages he had sent to a New Zealand blogger. He was granted diversion in 2018 for one misdemeanor count of harassment using a telecom device.

His diversion agreement related to sending pictures of his genitals to the New Zealand blogger is still pending after the state tried to revoke the diversion after he failed to comply with a provision that required he give law enforcement access to his cellphone to check for pornographic images. The District Court initially revoked the agreement in 2019 but the Kansas Court of Appeals reversed that decision in May and the case is currently unresolved. Hall filed a motion to dismiss the old case in July, stating that the diversion period had expired five years ago. Dowdell is scheduled to appear in court for a diversion revocation hearing on Sept 25.

Diversion is a procedure that gives an individual charged with a criminal offense the chance to avoid a conviction and the adverse consequences that can have on future employment and other areas. The process is handled entirely within the district attorney’s office and, if completed, the charges are not reflected in the person’s criminal history.

Dowdell’s rape trial is scheduled to last all week.