HUTCHINSON— A Kansas man arrested January 27, on a charge of sexual exploitation of a child is back in jail after the state requested the bond be increased.

Douglas A. Kennel, 45, Hutchinson, was arrested following an investigation that began when he took an old phone to have data transferred to a new phone.

The phone store employee transferred the data and saw images that he thought to be child porn.

In court, Senior Assistant District Attorney Steve Maxwell argued that the state has charged Kennel with sexual exploitation of a child and aggravated violation of the offender registration act.

Maxwell told the court of Kennel’s two convictions in Harvey County for aggravated indecent liberties with a child, but also two federal convictions for receipt of materials depicting a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct.

He also argued that due to the prior convictions, he’s looking at a life sentence with no chance of parole under the aggravated habitual sex offender statute. He asked for a 1-million dollar bond.

The Defense attorney argued that the images in question in this case were found on a damaged disk and that he believes his client had deleted them and no longer had access to them. He also argued that the old convictions are nearly 20-years old and said Kennel is not a flight risk.

Magistrate Judge Cheryl Allen after hearing the arguments increased the bond to $250,000.

She also ordered that Kennel have no contact with any child under the age of 18 and not be within a thousand feet of any school.

Hutchinson Police Detective Scott Carlton reported that after the investigation officers allegedly found over 4,000 images on the phone’s SD card, which they believed were downloaded from a file-sharing site.
The convictions in Harvey County for two counts of aggravated indecent liberties with a child are from 1997.
No date was set for the preliminary hearing.