photo by: Sylas May/Journal-World

Michael Ken Aller is pictured Friday, Jan. 2, 2026, in Douglas County District Court.

A registered sex offender who was accused of raping a woman at a Lawrence mobile home park took a plea deal on Friday — but the judge told him there’s “no guarantee” that he’ll get the probation sentence the attorneys agreed to recommend.

Michael Ken Aller, 36, of Lawrence, pleaded no contest to two counts of aggravated sexual battery in Douglas County District Court. The parties only briefly touched on the facts of the case on Friday; Senior Assistant District Attorney Ricardo Leal summarized that Aller had touched a woman sexually without her consent on March 30, 2022, when she was overcome by force or fear.

However, at a preliminary hearing in August 2025, the woman had testified about her experience. She said an acquaintance had arranged for her to get a ride home from a convenience store that day with Aller, whom she did not know. Aller asked her if she wanted to smoke marijuana and she accepted, she testified; then, she said Aller drove them to a trailer and gave her some marijuana, but did not partake himself.

The woman testified that Aller came on to her “pretty strongly” in the trailer and she put up her hands to indicate she was not interested; he ignored her, she said, and began groping her. She said she felt overpowered and said no “a million times over and over again,” but “it kept going on.” Afterward, she said, Aller “abruptly got off me like I was some kind of carnival ride.”

Leal and defense attorney Carl Cornwell had agreed to recommend a sentence of probation as part of Aller’s plea deal. But Judge Amy Hanley noted on Friday that she wasn’t bound by that recommendation, and that it was entirely possible that Aller could be sentenced to prison instead.

“There is no guarantee as to what your sentence will be in front of this court,” Hanley said.

She said that based on Aller’s expected criminal history and the Kansas sentencing guidelines, he could be facing between 50 and 55 months, or more than four years, in prison. If his criminal history score is higher than expected, she said, he could face a maximum prison sentence of 136 months, or 11 years and four months.

Moreover, Hanley said Aller’s offenses carried a presumptive prison sentence, so to depart from that and give him probation, she would need a substantial and compelling reason — and it would be up to the attorneys to provide that.

“I can’t just come up with them myself,” she said of reasons to depart from the sentencing guidelines.

Aller has been convicted in a Douglas County sex crime case before, and he did get probation in that case. In 2020, he was accused of attempting to solicit sex from a 15-year-old girl online and sending her illicit pictures of himself; in 2022, he pleaded no contest to electronic solicitation of a person between the ages of 14 and 16 and attempted aggravated indecent liberties with a child. Aller was sentenced to 59 months in prison in that case, which a former judge, Kay Huff, suspended to three years of probation.

Aller was also ordered to register as a sex offender at that time. On Friday, Hanley said that Aller would have to be registered for the rest of his life.

Hanley ordered a presentence investigation and set Aller’s sentencing date for Feb. 26.