8 years later, grandpa likely to get probation in child sex case
Staff writer
Nearly eight years after he first was charged with more than a dozen counts of sex offenses involving children, a former Marion man now living in Hillsboro has entered a plea agreement that’s likely to result in probation and no jail time.
Jerry A. Thouvenell, 64, Hillsboro, has pleaded no contest to two counts of indecent solicitation of a child between ages 14 and 15 and been ordered to register as a sex offender.
In the plea agreement worked out by County Attorney Joel Ensey, who will leave office January, 12 counts of aggravated indecent liberties with much younger children were dismissed.
Kansas statutes define indecent solicitation of a child as enticing, commanding, inviting, persuading or attempting to persuade a child between 14 and 15 years of age to commit or to submit to an unlawful sexual act.
Sentencing guidelines suggest 24 months’ probation. Depending on Thouvenell’s criminal history score, 12 months could be cut off his sentence.
Thouvenell originally was charged Feb. 3, 2017, with 12 counts of aggravated indecent liberties with a child younger than 14 for incidents between Jan. 1, 2012, and Aug. 8, 2016, involving three children.
In each count, he was accused of unlawfully engaging in lewd fondling or touching of a child with the intent to arouse or to satisfy sexual desires of himself or the child. He also was charged with one count of battery against a child.
The ages of the children listed in the original complaint were different from the ages listed on the amended complaint. The original complaint showed ages of 9 or 10 years old at the time of the first incident. A second victim was 10 years old at the time of the last incident. A third was between 5 and 10 years old at the time.
The original charges were off-grid felonies, meaning Thouvenell could have been sentenced to as much as life in prison.
The charges against him were amended three times. The most recent amended complaint, filed the day before he made his plea, included two counts of indecent solicitation of a child between age 14 and 16 and 12 counts of aggravated indecent liberties with a child younger than 14.
His trial was initially scheduled for February 2018 but was postponed 15 times for various reasons.
The first 10 times the trial was delayed by Thouvenell’s first lawyer, David Leon.
Thouvenell fired Leon after finding that Leon was being investigated for alleged ethics violations. Kansas Supreme Court later suspended Leon’s license.
The 11th delay was to give Thouvenell’s court-appointed lawyer, Kevin Loeffler, time to prepare.
In February 2021, Loeffler asked to postpone trial again. He said his only staff member had been hospitalized and was expected to be out three to four weeks.
A new judge, James Fleetwood, was assigned June 16, 2022. For reasons not disclosed on court records, but possibly to fit his schedule, Fleetwood postponed the trial twice.
Judge Mark Ward later was assigned to the case.
Thouvenell’s wife, Sheila Thouvenell, was charged in February 2017 with three counts of aggravated intimidation of a witness for allegedly preventing a witness from reporting a crime and two counts of aggravated child endangerment.
She struck a plea agreement and pleaded guilty in April 2018 to interference with law enforcement and was sentenced to a year’s probation.
The Thouvenells adopted three granddaughters in 2012 after their daughter was murdered by her husband, Davin R. Sprague, 50, in July 2010.
Sprague is in Hutchinson Correctional Facility. His earliest possible release date is Aug. 2, 2035.
Another granddaughter lived with the couple as well.
Thouvenell is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 9.