Must Olathe teacher guilty of stalking girl register as sex offender? Judge to decide
Whether James Loganbill is sentenced to jail time, house arrest or probation for stalking a 10-year-old girl, the Johnson County District Attorney’s office argues that the former grade school teacher should also be forced to register as a sex offender for the next 15 years because his crime was sexually motivated.
Loganbill’s attorney claims that there is no basis in state law for that. Crimes for which one must register as sex offender are spelled out in the statutes.
“Stalking is not one of them,” Carl Cornwell contends in a recently filed court document.
Judge Thomas Sutherland will weigh those arguments before passing sentence Wednesday afternoon in the case of the longtime Olathe public schools teacher who admitted to surreptitiously photographing the backside of his 10-year-old student because he found her sexually attractive.
Loganbill faces a maximum of one year in the county jail for his conviction last month on one count of stalking, a misdemeanor.
Assistant district attorney Cathy A. Eaton acknowledges in her sentencing memorandum in support of a jail sentence that stalking is not one of the crimes that automatically triggers an offenders’ inclusion on the sexual offender registry. But she said it was the legislature’s intent to include on the registry anyone convicted of “virtually any crime committed with sexual gratification as its motivation.”
The legal interpretations might be in dispute, but the underlying facts are not.
In March 2020, Loganbill admitted to Olathe police that he was sexually aroused by a girl in his fourth-grade class at Meadow Lane Elementary School, especially when she wore black leggings or dance pants. He took photographs and videos of her from the waist down when she was in his class and on the playground. More than 200 photos and videos were found on his phone and other electronic devices.
The police interview took place after school officials confronted the now 60-year-old Lenexa resident with allegations from parents and their children about his behavior. Loganbill admitted it was “creepy” and “morally wrong,” police said, but he had never touched the girl.
He was charged that June with stalking, which at the time was a misdemeanor. The legislature upgraded the statute to a felony at the urging of Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe, the girl’s family and others.
At trial, Cornwell argued that his client’s actions did not fit the crime with which he was charged. Stalking required the victim to be in fear for their safety at the time they were being stalked, he said, and the girl didn’t know of Loganbill’s activity until after it had been brought to the attention of authorities.
Sutherland did not agree with that reasoning, which will be the basis of the appeal Cornwell promised to file after sentencing. It was enough, Sutherland ruled, that she was fearful after learning she was the subject of Loganbill’s sexual desires.
According to Eaton’s memo, the girl is still scared of Loganbill and other men. Eaton wants Sutherland to take that into consideration in determining the severity of Loganbill’s sentence.
The document also discusses evidence that was not admitted at trial that Eaton also wants taken into account. His electronic devices also contained photos of another young girl in 2017.
“He also took pictures of her buttocks,” Eaton wrote.
According to the document, Loganbill took pictures of the girl he was found guilty of stalking because he found her sexually attractive.
“Yes, I would not have have done it otherwise,” he reportedly told police.
According to Eaton: “He then told investigators that he had done the same thing the past three school years and every year there has been a girl that wears the tights.”
She asked Sutherland to also consider Loganbill’s past interest in pornography of young girls in pantyhose or tights and news articles about teachers accused of sex crimes with students, which Eaton wrote is “both terrifying and illustrative as to his thoughts about his intentions.”
Cornwell asked Sutherland for leniency.
Loganbill had a clean criminal record before this case. Since retiring from teaching, Loganbill has been working construction to help support his family and has been subject to humiliation, from the many stories in the media about him to signs being placed near his home highlighting the case.
“The defendant is asking the court for a term of probation to allow him to continue with his counseling that he started so that he can continue on his path to rectify the actions that he took that got him in this position,” Cornwell said.
The prosecution wants him to get the maximum one year in jail for the harm he’s done his victim, the community and girls who’ve come forward since the case was first publicized.
“While their cases were not charged, because they did not find out in time to cause fear for them when it (was) happening, they and their families have been affected,” Eaton wrote.
At least one of their parents has asked to address the court Wednesday.
Last year, the Star spoke with several of Loganbill’s now-grown former students who said he was overly familiar with them when he was a teacher at Pioneer Trail Middle School a decade ago. Following complaints from those cheerleaders and a subsequent internal investigation in the fall of 2011, he was transferred out of that school for the remainder of that school year.
He began teaching at the grade school the following school year.
This story was originally published November 2, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
