photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

Jason J. Morrison appears at a hearing on April 17, 2025, in Douglas County District Court.

A trial has been scheduled for a Topeka man accused of buying nude photos and videos of two 16-year-old girls to sell.

The man, Jason J. Morrison, 42, is charged in Douglas County District Court with two counts of aggravated human trafficking and two counts of sexual exploitation of a child. The charges are in connection with a series of incidents between February 2019 and May 2023 and began when the victims were 16, as the Journal-World reported.

Judge Amy Hanley scheduled an Oct. 27 trial for Morrison. She said that Morrison’s attorney, Razmi Tahirkheli, had originally asked the court for a bench trial, rather than a jury trial, to resolve the case.

Tahirkheli said that he and the state, represented by Deputy District Attorney David Greenwald, could not agree on a set of facts that would need to be stipulated to to go ahead with the bench trial, and Tahirkheli requested a jury trial date.

Morrison has been in custody since his arrest in September of 2023 and has waived his right to a speedy trial. Similar sexual exploitation charges have been filed in Shawnee County with an additional charge of aggravated sodomy, all in connection with the same girls. He is being held on a $100,000 bond.

According to a police affidavit filed in Douglas County District Court, Lawrence police were first alerted to Morrison’s behavior after one girl’s family members located nude images being sent to Morrison on the girl’s phone.

Allegations in affidavits have not been proved in court.

Throughout their investigation, police said they found emails and text messages with explicit photos and videos and evidence that Morrison had paid hundreds of dollars in exchange for the sexual material.

One of the girls told police that he had first contacted her when she was 16 and asked if she knew of any girls who wanted a “sugar daddy,” to which the girl replied that she would like one. Morrison then proposed that the girl send him photos and videos that he could sell, according to the affidavit.

Morrison was contacted by police in September of 2023 at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Leavenworth, where Morrison reportedly agreed to waive his Miranda rights. Morrison then told police that he was a “hebephile” and is sexually attracted to girls as young as 13.

Morrison said that he manipulated the girls into sending the photos because he “knew they were going through struggles themselves and that vulnerability would make them easy targets,” according to the affidavit.

Morrison said that he would frequently reciprocate and send the girls nude images of himself, according to the affidavit. He said he never sold any of the images.

photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

Jason J. Morrison appears at a hearing on April 17, 2025, in Douglas County District Court.