photo by: Mugshot courtesy of the KBI Sex Offender Registry

Owen Dalton is pictured with the Douglas County Judicial and Law Enforcement Center.

An Olathe man was sentenced to three years of probation on Wednesday for possessing child pornography in 2021.

The man, Owen Patrick Dalton, 21, was originally charged in Douglas County District Court with three felony counts of sexual exploitation of a child by possessing photographs of a child under the age of 18, according to charging documents. The charges relate to an incident on Aug. 25, 2021.

As part of a plea agreement Dalton pleaded no contest in September 2023 to one count of felony sexual exploitation of a child where the state agreed to dismiss the remaining charges. Dalton has no criminal history, so the mid-level felony placed Dalton in a “border box” on the Kansas sentencing guidelines, which meant that Judge Sally Pokorny could have sentenced Dalton to prison or probation at her discretion.

Dalton’s attorney, Patrick Lewis, filed a motion for Dalton to be granted probation that said Dalton “fell into this behavior early in youth” and that he has since “put it behind him”. The motion said that Dalton’s hobby was “pursuing physical fitness” which Lewis argued shows Dalton “can and does engage in socially and personally beneficial pursuits.”

On Wednesday, Pokorny sentenced Dalton to 32 months of prison before she suspended that sentence to 36 months, or three years, of probation. She then ordered Dalton to undergo a sex offender evaluation and pursue any treatment that the evaluator recommends. She said Dalton has already been complying with his required 15-year sex offender registration.

Dalton was first arrested in connection with the charges in June of 2023 and has been free on a $30,000 own-recognizance bond, meaning he was not required to pay any money to be released from jail, according to court records.