photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Kenneth Soap is pictured at a motions hearing Wednesday, July 17, 2024, in Douglas County District Court.

A jury trial for a man accused of multiple sex crimes that was scheduled to begin at the end of this month has been canceled after the parties indicated to the court Thursday that a plea deal was imminent.

The defendant, Kenneth Wayne Soap, 46, is now scheduled for a plea hearing on May 1 in Douglas County District Court. The plea agreement, not yet available in court records, is expected to resolve charges in four separate cases going back as far as 2008.

As the Journal-World has reported, Soap has been charged with five counts of rape, five counts of aggravated sexual battery, one count of aggravated criminal sodomy, one count of criminal sodomy with an animal, a fourth DUI and two counts of battery on a law enforcement officer.

Soap has been in the Douglas County Jail with a total bond set at $405,000 cash or surety.

In a case that was dismissed locally in anticipation of federal charges, Soap had also been accused of preying on middle school girls in Lawrence and elsewhere. In that case he was charged with multiple counts of sexual exploitation and child pornography. His alleged activity, including obscene solicitation to 11- and 12-year-olds, came to light after a teacher at Liberty Memorial Central Middle School happened to overhear a conversation among four pre-teen girls about a man calling and sending them messages on Snapchat, as the Journal-World reported.

While investigating Soap’s alleged sex crimes against children, Lawrence police found video evidence of other sex crimes, according to his arrest affidavits. The affidavits, which are sworn documents prepared by police to support his arrest, depict Soap as a man who sexually attacked young female friends while they were asleep or passed-out drunk and who sexually abused one of the women’s dogs. Video of the incidents, which happened more than 10 years ago, were found on a laptop owned by Soap, according to the affidavits.

Allegations in arrest affidavits have not been proved in court.