State Supports Probation

LAWRENCE JOURNAL-WORLD — Robert Keith Wright is pictured during a hearing on June 23, 2023, in Douglas County District Court. Wright pleaded no contest to felony aggravated battery as part of a plea agreement in which the state dismissed rape and kidnapping charges.

A Lawrence man who was originally charged with rape and kidnapping pleaded no contest on Friday to a low-level felony as part of a plea agreement in which the state will support a departure to probation.

Robert Keith Wright, 57, was charged with one count of rape and one count of aggravated kidnapping, both of which are level-one felonies, the highest level of felony on the Kansas sentencing grid, and come with a minimum penalty of 147 months, over 12 years, in prison each for someone with no criminal history and as much as 653 months, over 54 years, in prison for someone with a significant history.

Wright’s attorney, Angela Keck, said during a hearing on Friday that she believes that Wright has a criminal history score that would put him on the upper end of those potential sentences. She said that Wright has one felony but also has several misdemeanor convictions that together would be classified as felonies when Wright is sentenced.

Wright was also charged with a low-level felony count of criminal threat and one misdemeanor count of domestic battery. The charges relate to an incident on Jan. 10 in the 700 block of North Street in Lawrence.

Friday’s hearing was the court’s third attempt to hold a preliminary hearing for Wright, at which the state would have presented evidence that a crime was committed and that Wright may have committed the crime. But each time the hearing was rescheduled because the complaining witness was unavailable.

The hearing was first scheduled on April 5, when the victim did not appear and had not communicated with the court that she would not be available. A few days later the woman was arrested on an unrelated charge and was in custody at the Douglas County Jail. The hearing was rescheduled for April 26, but while at the jail, the woman was having mental health issues on the day of the hearing, and the state determined that she should not be made to testify as it would aggravate her condition.

The woman was unavailable Friday due to being deemed incompetent in her own criminal case and is currently receiving treatment at the state hospital in Osawatomie. The state, represented by Chief Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Tatum, filed a motion to conduct the hearing without the woman and to use a statement she gave to police at the time of the incident as evidence in the hearing.

Keck said that she would object to the state’s motion, but before either side could argue, Tatum put a plea agreement offer on the record in which the state would dismiss the rape and kidnapping charges and charge Wright with felony aggravated battery, with no duty to register as a sex offender, and Tatum said that the state would support a dispositional departure to probation.

Attorneys can file motions to ask the court to depart from the Kansas sentencing guidelines. A dispositional departure asks the court to grant probation over prison, while a durational departure asks the court to give the defendant less prison time than the guidelines require.

Keck said that she had received the plea offer previously but she was not aware that the state would support probation and that Wright rejected the offer because even the low-level felony would mean mandatory prison time for Wright with his criminal history.

Judge Stacey Donovan recessed the court while the parties discussed the plea. When the court returned, Wright waived his right to a preliminary hearing and pleaded no contest to the reduced charge, and the state dismissed the remaining charges.

Donovan is not bound by the state’s plea agreement for the dispositional departure and can decide to sentence Wright to time in prison if she decides it is in the interest of public safety.

Regarding a factual basis for the battery charge, Tatum said it stemmed from an incident on Jan. 10 when Wright and the victim were in the 700 block of North Street and were arguing. The woman wanted to leave the residence and tried climbing out of the house through a window. As she was climbing out the window Wright bit the woman on her upper thigh.

Tatum said that the battery charge would be classified as a domestic violence incident and Wright would be required to undergo an assessment and classes for domestic violence.

Wright was arrested on the day of the incident in January and was held on a $100,000 cash or surety bond until May, when his bond was changed to a $50,000 own-recognizance bond, meaning he was not required to put up any money to be released from jail but could have been charged that amount if he failed to appear in court. Wright is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 18.

According to court records, Wright was convicted in Douglas County of felony criminal threat and misdemeanor domestic battery in 2016, one count of misdemeanor domestic battery in both 2015 and 2014. He was charged with misdemeanor domestic battery in 2012 but completed a diversion program that deferred a conviction in that case.