photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

The Douglas County Judicial and Law Enforcement Center is pictured on Sept. 4, 2024.

A Douglas County prosecutor on Tuesday vehemently objected to the bond being lowered for a 75-year-old man accused of molesting a young boy, telling the court that the man had confessed to sex crimes that are punishable by life in prison.

Defendant Steven Braswell, of Lawrence, was in Judge Stacey Donovan’s courtroom pleading to be released on an own-recognizance bond, meaning he would not have to pay any money at all, instead of the $50,000 cash or surety bond Donovan had earlier ordered.

Senior Assistant District Attorney Megan Ahsens objected to the bond being reduced by any amount.

“Fifty-thousand dollars is already very low for an off-grid felony,” she told Donovan, adding that Braswell had testified to owning three homes and three cars, though he claimed that two of the homes were uninhabited rental properties in a state of disrepair and that the newest of the vehicles was 15 years old.

Braswell also testified that aside from a DUI over 50 years ago he had not committed any crimes, to which Ahsens, on cross-examination, said: “But you confessed to this crime, correct?” — referring to allegations of aggravated criminal sodomy and aggravated indecent liberties with a boy in 2016. In the charging document, the child is listed as having been born in 2010.

Braswell did not answer the question. His attorney, Michael Clarke, said the alleged crimes were many years in the past.

“This is an allegation from 2016,” he said, to which Ahsens responded that “delayed disclosure is the norm in child sex abuse cases,” and she repeated that Braswell had confessed to the father of the victim as well as to the police and was facing multiple life sentences.

Braswell also testified that he had lived in the same Lawrence home for 40 years and that it would be difficult for his 80-year-old wife to live in the home without him. He said that he also had a number of health issues — severe curvature of the spine, bad hips and a heart issue that had required a quadruple bypass in October — but “other than standing and walking, I’m in pretty decent shape.”

Braswell had walked into the courtroom but was allowed to testify from the defense table rather than walking to the witness stand.

Clarke told Judge Donovan that he had not closely researched Braswell’s finances but that “he would have bonded out if he could.” Ahsens countered that he was “well capable” of handling the current bond amount. Donovan noted that she had earlier found that Braswell qualified for a court-appointed attorney — Clarke — based on information she had been provided at his first appearance after his May 10 arrest.

In addition to an own-recognizance bond, Clarke proposed Enhanced Maximum Monitoring that had been recommended by pretrial services. Such monitoring would include home confinement and electronic monitoring. Ahsens meanwhile requested that the $50,000 bond remain in place alongside house arrest and GPS monitoring.

Donovan did not rule on Tuesday but said that she would take the bond request under advisement and let the parties know of her decision by email. She indicated that she wanted more information about Braswell’s medical needs and whether they were being met in the jail.

Donovan ordered Braswell to have no conversations with his wife about his pending case — conversations that Ahsens claimed had been occurring. She also ordered him to appear for a status conference on June 9.