photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Kenneth Wayne Soap is pictured Friday, May 1, 2026, in Douglas County District Court with his attorney, Branden Smith.

A Lawrence man pleaded guilty to two counts of rape Friday in Douglas County District Court and will face nearly 38 years in prison when he is sentenced this summer.

The defendant, Kenneth Wayne Soap, 46, committed the crimes in 2009. Pursuant to a search warrant, police found photos and videos on his computer of Soap performing sex acts on unconscious women, according to prosecutor Megan Ahsens, who laid out a factual basis for Soap’s pleas on Friday. The videos were discovered as part of an unrelated investigation into alleged child sex crimes.

As the Journal-World reported, Soap was accused of multiple sex crimes and had been set to go to trial last month. That jury trial was canceled when attorneys announced that they had reached a plea deal, which was presented to Senior Judge Gunnar Sundby on Friday.

Soap had 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. Those charges were largely resolved by Friday’s plea, which also included Soap pleading guilty to a fourth DUI after he left the scene of a March 17, 2021, North Lawrence accident with a blood alcohol content of .29, or more than three times the legal limit.

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.

As part of his Friday plea deal, the U.S. Attorney’s Office is expected to indict Soap and to seek a 30-year sentence to run concurrently with whatever sentence Soap receives in July. Part of the plea deal is that if Soap’s criminal history score comes back lower than the expected “C,” he will agree to an unusual upward departure to 450 months, or 37.5 years. Under Kansas Sentencing Guidelines, “A” is the worst criminal history score and “I” is the lowest, or best, score.

While investigating Soap’s alleged sex crimes against children, Lawrence police found the video evidence of the rapes. Soap did not have a preliminary hearing, at which evidence would have been presented in some detail to the court. However, his arrest affidavits, which are sworn documents prepared by police, depicted Soap as a man who preyed obscenely on minors and who sexually attacked young female friends while they were asleep or passed-out drunk and who sexually abused one of the women’s dogs.

Soap’s sentencing is set for July 9, at which time his victims will have an opportunity to address the court.