photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

The Douglas County Judicial and Law Enforcement Center is pictured on Nov. 25, 2025.

Two teenagers on Monday told a Douglas County judge that a Lawrence man sexually abused them several years ago during sleepovers at his home.

The teens testified at a preliminary hearing about separate incidents that they said occurred at the home of Jordey McTaggart, 35, as they spent the night with his children when they were in elementary school.

One girl, now 15, testified that when she was 7 or 8 she was lying on the floor in a bedroom as McTaggart’s children slept in a nearby triple bunk bed. She said she was playing games on her phone when the hallway light come on and McTaggart entered the bedroom. Fearing that she might get in trouble for playing on her phone, she hid it and pretended to be asleep, she said. McTaggart got on the floor behind her and touched her sexually, she said, but his fingers did not penetrate her.

Her account differed from what she had reportedly told Lawrence Police Detective Joshua Leitner last year. Leitner, who briefly took the stand Monday, testified that the girl had previously said that McTaggart had digitally penetrated her. The distinction is significant because penetration is required for a rape charge under Kansas law.

The girl also testified that on another night — one of “a lot” of sleepovers — McTaggart approached her as she slept on the top of the bunk bed and fondled her bare chest.

She said that police found out about the alleged crimes because she had talked about them to her therapist, who reported the matter to authorities.

Another girl, now 14, testified Monday that McTaggart had raped her via intercourse multiple times at sleepovers at his house while his own children slept in the same room. She said that she was 8 or 9 at the time, but later said 7 or 8. She said she had “no clue” how many times it had happened, though at one point she estimated two or three times.

“It’s all like blurry in my mind,” she said.

When pressed for details by McTaggart’s attorney, Jessica Glendening, the girl said, “I just can’t think about it.”

Glendening pointed out several ways in which the girls’ testimony was vague or contradicted what they had told police last year, including, with the first girl, whether she was penetrated or not and whether she had fallen asleep or stayed awake during the incident, and with the second girl, whether McTaggart was behind or on top of her, whether she cried or yelled and whether she went home or stayed right afterward.

Glendening pointed out that the two girls had attended the same elementary school in Lawrence. When she asked the second girl whether the first girl had talked to her about being molested, she said she didn’t remember.

Because the girls’ testimony differed from what the parties had been expecting, Senior Assistant District Attorney Ricardo Leal asked Judge Sally Pokorny for leave to amend the complaint against McTaggart, who had originally been charged with three counts of raping a child under age 14. Leal verbally proposed changing one count to rape with an alternate charge of aggravated indecent liberties with a child, adding a new charge of aggravated indecent liberties and dropping another count of rape.

Glendening said she did not believe that probable cause existed for a rape charge in the first girl’s case because the girl was “adamant” on the stand that no penetration had occurred. Glendening asked Pokorny to delay a decision on whether McTaggart would be ordered to stand trial because she wanted time to review an amended complaint and the transcript from Monday’s preliminary hearing.

Pokorny set a Feb. 13 date for arraignment and to hear additional arguments on whether McTaggart should be ordered to trial.