photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Defendant Miquel Brown, left, leaves the courtroom after a jury found him guilty of rape and aggravated criminal sodomy on Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025, in Douglas County District Court.

Sentencing for a convicted rapist that was scheduled for Dec. 22 has now been moved to a month after the holidays as his attorneys prepare a motion for a judgment of acquittal or a new trial.

Miquel Brown, 33, of Lawrence, was found guilty by a Douglas County jury on Nov. 5 of rape and aggravated criminal sodomy.

The state initially objected to a delay in sentencing, but on Tuesday prosecutor Ricardo Leal withdrew his objection, telling Judge Sally Pokorny that Brown’s attorneys, Jessica Glendening and Gary West, had provided more information about why the delay was sought. Leal said the attorneys told him that Brown could not get a needed “evaluation” before the original sentencing date, but the nature of that evaluation was not disclosed in court Tuesday.

In a written motion for the continuance, however, Brown’s attorneys cited “an issue of medical necessity that would necessarily need to be addressed, by his attorneys, prior to and at sentencing.” It was not clear if the “medical necessity” was connected to the sought-after evaluation, which is now scheduled for the original sentencing date of Dec. 22.

Five days after the jury convicted Brown, his defense attorneys moved for acquittal or a new trial but did not give any reasons for their request because they had not received the trial transcripts that would form the basis for their motion.

They indicated on Tuesday that they would also be seeking a downward departure in sentencing when, and if, Brown is sentenced on Jan. 28 for the two felonies.

As the Journal-World reported, Brown’s victim, who was 18 at the time, testified at his trial that she had been spending the night with Brown, whom she had known all her life and had regarded as a “brother,” and his girlfriend. As she retired to the living room couch to sleep, Brown began massaging her lower extremities, gradually moving to her genitalia and to sex acts that the jury deemed rape and aggravated criminal sodomy. The woman, who immediately reported the crimes, said she did not say no because Brown was a large man and she had been “frozen” with fear.