DA drops case against Wichita-area youth home worker accused of illegal sex with teen
Prosecutors earlier this month dismissed a sex crimes case against a former employee of a Wichita-area home for at-risk boys who allegedly carried on an illegal relationship with a teenage resident, saying a problem with a witness made the case difficult to continue pursuing at this time.
Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett told The Eagle on Tuesday that charges could be refiled against Amanda Renee McCool “in the event the issue is resolved,” but did not elaborate further.
McCool, 42, was an employee of Lakeside Academy, 24401 W. MacArthur near Goddard and Lake Afton, when the crimes allegedly occurred in early 2018. She pleaded not guilty to three counts of unlawful sexual relations in 2019 and had a jury trial date scheduled for Monday, court records show.
Her attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Nov. 3 dismissal came the same day McCool’s defense attorney filed a written motion asking the court to throw out the case based on the provision of the statute prosecutors used to charge her, which makes it illegal for employees and contractors of juvenile detention facilities to have sexual contact with the offenders they oversee and interact with.
In the motion, the lawyer argues McCool’s charges should be thrown out because Lakeside Academy is not a juvenile detention facility or sanctions house and the alleged victim was not a juvenile offender.
Other sections of the state’s unlawful sexual relations statute make it illegal for teachers, foster care workers and others in positions of authority over juveniles, inmates and adult offenders to have sexual contact with them, regardless of their age.
At the time of McCool’s arrest, Lakeside Academy described itself on its website as a YRC-II residential youth center for boys 13 and older that works with the Kansas Department for Children and Families and typically serves juvenile offender and at-risk youth with anger, impulse control and other issues.
Bennett said his office dismissed the case over the witness issue before the defense lawyer’s motion was heard by a judge.
McCool was arrested at her Haysville home in 2018 after rumors of the relationship were reported to the Kansas DCF and the alleged victim, a 16-year-old in state custody who was court-ordered to live at Lakeside, told his therapist about it, according to an affidavit released by the court.
Security video from the facility shows McCool going into the teen’s bedroom in violation of facility policy, the affidavit says, and he reported that McCool initiated sex with him in his room after the other kids went to breakfast, flirted with him, tried to kiss him, and offered to pay him $80 every two weeks to keep quiet and “let her touch him.”
The affidavit says the boy said he didn’t immediately disclose the relationship because he “was afraid he would get in trouble and have to stay longer” at Lakeside.
He told authorities he felt depressed, kept to himself and tried “to stay out of trouble” so he could go home, according to the affidavit.
When she was interviewed, McCool initially told law enforcement she would bring the boy breakfast sandwiches from McDonald’s and other snacks “in exchange for his promise that he would get up and go to school” and said that having residents flirt with her “made her feel attractive,” the affidavit says. But she denied any illegal relationship.
Later, she admitted to having sexual contact with the boy but claimed that he had been the aggressor, the affidavit says.
