photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Jordey McTaggart testifies at his trial on Wednesday, July 15, 2026, in Douglas County District Court.

A Lawrence father of four testified on Wednesday that he did not sexually abuse two young girls during sleepovers at his home several years ago.

Jordey M. McTaggart, facing two counts of aggravated indecent liberties with a child and one count of rape, told a jury that he did not sneak into a bedroom and do what the girls, then around 7 or 8 but now teens, claimed that he had done. One girl testified on Tuesday that he had sexually touched her on two different occasions, and another testified that he had raped her in a room where his own children were asleep, as the Journal-World reported.

Do you know why they’d say that? defense attorney Jessica Glendening asked him.

“No, I do not,” he replied.

photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World Photo

Public Defender Jessica Glendening is one of Jordey McTaggart’s attorneys, along with Allyson Monson.

McTaggart also denied that he had singled out the two accusers for special attention, contrary to what some previous witnesses — describing inappropriate “tickle fights” and “ear nibbling” — had said.

Prosecutors have attempted to show that McTaggart especially liked the two girls, his neighbors, because they were a type: “skinny and blonde.”

McTaggart acknowledged that he initially told police that he never tickled other people’s kids, only his own, but later admitted that he did tickle others, though never inappropriately. He said that he always maintained “boundaries” and that the “ear nibbling” did not involve actual nibbling but only the playful sound of nibbling.

Under cross-examination by prosecutor Megan Ahsens, McTaggart acknowledged that he had told a detective that he looked upon one of the girls as “my own daughter.” He described the girl as having a troubled home life and said that he and his wife felt sorry for her.

Asked by a detective if he had ever “accidentally” touched one of the girls inappropriately, McTaggart told police “I wouldn’t allow myself to do that,” Ahsens noted. She commented that there was a big difference between a denial worded that way and a simple denial such as “no.” Glendening fought back against that, eliciting testimony from McTaggart that many of his answers to police were simply in response to “hypotheticals” he had been asked.

Ahsens asked McTaggart if it were true that he had mentioned one of the girls to police before they had even told him the name of the second accuser.

“I don’t recall,” McTaggart said.

McTaggart said that he often did late-night rounds in the trailer home to make sure that doors and windows were locked and that TVs in his children’s rooms were turned off, but he denied sneaking into or remaining in his daughters’ room for any nefarious purpose during sleepovers with their friends. He said that if his own kids — but not other kids — were uncovered, he would cover them. He also denied ever climbing a ladder on the room’s triple bunk beds to cover a child, even if it were his own child.

“I never liked going up there, so I never worried about the child on top,” he said. “I know it sounds bad, but I never did.”

The subject of the ladder had arisen because both girls had said that at some point during the alleged abuse they were in the highest bunk.

McTaggart’s wife, Jessica McTaggart, had earlier testified that the family had not purchased the triple bunk beds until June 2020, after she found out she was pregnant with her third daughter. The date was significant because two of the alleged sex crimes were estimated to have been in the summer of 2018. Both girls testified about being in the bunk beds and their location in the room.

photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Prosecutor David melton questions a witness on Wednesday, July 15, 2026, in the Jordey McTaggart trial in Douglas County District Court. Senior Judge Nancy Parrish is at left.

Exact dates for the alleged offenses have never been pinned down, though prosecutor David Melton indicated in opening arguments Monday that one child was victimized at age 7 in the summer of 2018 and the other was victimized between January 2018 and January 2021 between the ages of 8 and 10. The incidents were not reported to police until many years later, in 2025, when a therapist of one of the girls told police about them. The accusers have evidently been making their best guesses about the timeframe.

Jessica McTaggart testified that the family had moved into the Easy Living mobile home community in March 2019. In July 2019 they moved to a different trailer lot at Easy Living. She said that the two accusers lived in nearby trailers, but she said they did not become friends with her kids until after the July 2019 move, though they attended school together. Subsequently, the McTaggarts hosted frequent sleepovers for the kids, she said. When Melton asked her if there had been 100 sleepovers, she said no but acknowledged there were “a lot.”

She also testified that the tallest of two bunk bed ladders squeaked when someone was climbing it and that the middle bed shook, implying that it would be difficult to sneak up on someone in the bed. She prepared a video with audio of one of her daughters climbing the ladder, which jurors watched Wednesday.

Melton questioned Jessica McTaggart on the bed noise, suggesting that people become used to routine noises in their home and that flat-pack furniture like the bunk beds probably became squeakier with age. He noted that the McTaggarts had owned the bunk beds for nearly six years before the video was made and that someone “trying to be careful and quiet” would make less noise than the daughter had in the video.

Jessica McTaggart testified that she was always present in the home when the sleepovers occurred and that no bedrooms doors were ever shut in their home, which she described as a 16-foot by 76-foot trailer. One of the girls had testified that Jordey McTaggart had opened the door to enter the room.

Though previous witnesses said that her husband often slept in the living room, which was closer to the kids’ rooms, Jessica McTaggart denied that was the case, claiming they never had arguments that would lead to that — not until after 2022. At that point there was “a reason” for arguments and sleeping apart, she said, without elaborating.

The defense rested its case late Wednesday morning, and the trial was expected to resume in the afternoon with jury instructions and closing arguments.

photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Jordey McTaggart appears at his sex-crimes trial on Monday, July 13, 2026, in Douglas County District Court.