photo by: Screenshot taken with permission of the Douglas County Court

Mark Gridley appears via video conference from the Douglas County Jail during a hearing on Feb. 19, 2025, in Douglas County District Court.

The defense attorney for a speech pathologist who’s accused of sexually molesting multiple elementary students is asking a Douglas County judge to order a competency evaluation for the defendant.

The attorney, Vanessa Riebli, wrote in a motion filed earlier this month that the competency evaluation would determine whether Mark E. Gridley, 61, is able to understand the proceedings against him and to participate in his own defense. The Douglas County District Attorney’s Office does not object to such an evaluation, Riebli wrote.

Lawrence police have alleged that eight children, between the ages of 6 and 11, were victimized by Gridley at Prairie Park Elementary, 2711 Kensington Road, over the course of two days in early February. However, Gridley has so far been charged in Douglas County with one count of aggravated indecent liberties with a child and one count of kidnapping, both involving a child born in 2014. Gridley is alleged to have victimized the children under the guise of a speech therapy “test” while they were blindfolded and their hands were tied, as the Journal-World has reported.

In addition to the request for a competency evaluation, Riebli has also requested body camera footage related to the “transport” of Gridley to LMH Health on Feb. 9, the day after his arrest, and video surveillance of “Gridley and his surroundings” for a 30-minute period on the afternoon of March 7 at the Douglas County Jail. Riebli is also seeking “all disciplinary records for inmate Mark Elliott Gridley.”

Deputy District Attorney David Greenwald has requested “business records” from the Lawrence school district and USD 345, which is the Seaman school district in Topeka.

Gridley was arrested on Feb. 8 and subsequently fired by the Lawrence school district. He is being held in the Douglas County Jail on a $1.5 million bond.

A lawsuit has been filed against the Lawrence school district on behalf of a current student alleging that she was sexually abused by Gridley. The lawsuit claims that the district knew Gridley had a “propensity for unwanted or abusive contact” with minors but failed to investigate prior allegations.

Gridley is scheduled to appear before Judge Amy Hanley on Wednesday for a status conference.