photo by: Lawrence Police Department/Jackson Co. Mo.

David J. Zimbrick

Updated at 12:33 p.m. Thursday, March 5

A man accused of sexually attacking two children decades ago in a Lawrence park is out of custody on a $100,000 bond and has hired a private attorney to represent him, according to newly released information in the case.

David James Zimbrick, 58, was arrested in December by U.S. Marshals in Raytown, Missouri, after detectives with the Lawrence Police Department received confirmation from the Kansas Bureau of Investigation that DNA from Zimbrick was a match with DNA found at the crime scenes.

As the Journal-World reported, a 7-year-old girl who said she was attacked at Naismith Valley Park on Aug. 25, 2000, told police that her attacker had been smoking a cigarette. DNA evidence from that cigarette butt — enhanced by new technology called forensic genetic genealogy — helped lead to Zimbrick’s arrest in a case that had gone cold.

In addition to the 2000 incident, Zimbrick is accused of attacking another child in the same park in 2003. Douglas County District Attorney Dakota Loomis said at a highly touted news conference with Lawrence Police Chief Rich Lockhart in late December that Zimbrick was facing serious charges in both cases.

Additional investigative work will continue to determine if Zimbrick might be a suspect in other crimes, they said.

The criminal complaint indicates that Zimbrick has been charged with rape in the 2000 case and aggravated criminal sodomy and aggravated indecent liberties with a child under 14 in the 2003 case.

Zimbrick, who is being represented by attorney Carl Cornwell, posted a $100,000 surety bond in early January, records indicate. That was a modification from the original bond amount set at $1 million. He is prohibited from having unsupervised contact with anyone under 18 years of age. He is next scheduled to appear in court on April 14 for another status conference.

Until Thursday, records relating to Zimbrick in the online court records system had been unavailable to the public, though Zimbrick has had at least three status conferences in Douglas County District Court since his arrest. Those appearances were not identified in court calendars using his name, and the number assigned to his case consistently indicated “no records found.”

The Journal-World reached out to the court to determine why this was the case. Chief Judge Mark Simpson, who is not presiding over the Zimbrick case, explained that the dearth of information was related to a document not being filed that would ordinarily have unsealed the case:

“Under K.S.A. 60-2617(a)(1), criminal cases in which an arrest warrant is being sought shall be sealed util the warrant has been executed,” Simpson said via email. “The court clerk generally learns that an arrest warrant has been executed when a Return of Service on an arrest warrant is filed. At that point, the clerk then unseals the case.

In this case, a Return of Service on the arrest warrant had not yet been filed so the clerk did not unseal it. That is why information was not appearing in the usual places where you would access information. The Return of Service has now been filed [on Thursday, March 5], which is why the case is now unsealed.”