Bond enters plea deal in child sex case
A Horton resident charged with sex-related crimes in Jackson County involving a 9-year-old girl will face sentencing in February after entering a plea deal on Friday in Jackson County District Court.
Dallas Bond, 21, entered a no contest plea to a felony charge of aggravated indecent liberties with a child after a hearing in which Kansas Second Judicial District Jeff Elder granted a handful of state’s motions regarding a trial that had been set to begin on Tuesday, Dec. 15 in district court.
With the no contest plea, however, Jackson County Attorney Shawna Miller said sentencing for Bond has been set for Feb. 1, 2016, in district court. The standard sentence on the charge is life, without the possibility of parole for 25 years, Miller said.
Bond had been charged in Jackson County with rape, aggravated indecent liberties with a child, aggravated kidnapping, two counts of sexual exploitation of a child and aggravated endangering a child, all felonies. He had entered not guilty pleas on all charges in July.
The charges against Bond stem from an alleged August 2013 incident in which Bond reportedly had sexual intercourse with a girl who was nine years old at the time, according to district court records.
Similar charges were filed against Bond in Brown County, where he was recently sentenced to 91 months in jail following no-contest pleas on charges of kidnapping, sexual exploitation of a child, identity fraud and felony theft.
A former employee of the Brown County Sheriff’s Office, Bond allegedly formulated an “elaborate scheme,” in the words of Brown County Attorney Kevin Hill, to bring the nine-year-old girl from Brown County to Jackson County for sexual purposes, it was reported. He allegedly created a false EMS training event in Holton as part of his scheme to lure the girl, who was reportedly an acquaintance of Bond, to a hotel in Holton.
Bond currently remains in custody at the Jackson County Detention Center in Holton awaiting sentencing on the Jackson County charges, it was reported. Miller said that with a presumptive life sentence possible for Bond on the Jackson County conviction, there was “no real reason to not agree to” allowing the Jackson and Brown sentences to run concurrently.
Among the motions granted prior to Bond’s plea agreement was a motion filed by Miller to have Bond’s alleged victim enter testimony via closed-circuit telecast, during which Bond would not have been physically present. Neither Bond nor his attorney, J. Richard Lake of Holton, appeared to object to the motion.
A motion for “reciprocal discovery” in the case, as well as a motion in limine and a motion regarding redactions of certain portions of evidence, all filed in November by Miller, were also granted by Elder without objection from Bond or Lake.
The reciprocal discovery motion requires both prosecution to share all of its case-related documents, lists of witnesses and other information with the defense prior to trial.
A motion in limine is a motion filed by a party to a lawsuit which asks the court for an order or ruling limiting or preventing certain evidence from being presented by the other side at the trial of the case.
Miller said the motion for redactions sought the court’s setting of deadlines for the defense to request certain redactions to either give her enough time prior to trial to review those requests or to object to those requests and have the court decide the matter.
