Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — A Hutchinson man has been bound over for trial on rape and other sex crime charges following a Dec. 13 preliminary hearing in Reno County District Court.
The alleged victim, 13, was the primary witness in the rape case, concerning Anthony O. Krause, 30, Hutchinson, and the victim took the witness stand in Reno County District Court to deliver testimony on Tuesday.
Krause was also present, and secured, at the hearing.
Krause is accused to have had sex with a child under 14 on May 11, and to have committed aggravated indecent liberties with the same child on May 17.
Krause is also accused of soliciting the same person for the unlawful act on May 8 and to attempt to persuade the person to commit such an act on that same date.
Charges were formally filed against Krause in October.
The alleged victim, whose name is omitted in this story due to being a minor, was sworn to the stand. A school counselor, one they had informed of their experiences on May 17, sat in the hearing as their support.
Under questioning from prosecutor Kimberly Rodebaugh from the Reno County District Attorney’s Office, the alleged victim recalled the abuse that Krause is accused of in precise detail, to the point that additional charges from incidents different from the initial indictment were added at the end of the hearing.
Krause had been called dad at points in the childhood of the witness.
Krause lived with the 13-year-old's family when they resided in Colorado, but the specific incidents relating to the charges happened in Hutchinson.
The teen said the touching began during the time when learning was taking place at home during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The alleged victim spoke of multiple incidents both with clothes and without, starting when the victim was 11, and progressed over several encounters and included many different types of touching that, by themselves, would be criminal acts, along with requests for pictures.
The escalation eventually extended to acts that, according to the teen, caused Krause to ask for a pregnancy test, due to his fear that pregnancy had occurred.
The teen and Krause also communicated over Discord and copies of those records were introduced into evidence.
Judge Joseph L. McCarville III, presided. McCarville stated that, based on the evidence presented, if convicted, Krause could be looking at a sentence of life in prison without the chance of parole for 25 years.
A pretrial conference is set for Anthony O. Krause Dec. 30 at 8:30 a.m. in Reno County District Court.
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