Man who videotaped people in Lawrence dressing rooms gets 18 years for sex assault

A former graduate teaching assistant at the University of Kansas has been sentenced to 18 years in prison for sexually assaulting a woman while she was unconscious.

Orion M. Graf, 38, was sentenced last week in Douglas County District Court, where he pleaded no contest last year to charges of attempted rape and attempted aggravated criminal sodomy.

Graf was previously convicted of eavesdropping for using a hidden camera to secretly videotape women in dressing rooms at the Gap in downtown Lawrence.

While following up on that case, a Lawrence police officer discovered images on an electronic device that showed sexual contact with an 18-year-old woman in various stages of undress, according to the Douglas County District Attorney’s Office.

When police contacted her, the woman said she'd been in a previous relationship with Graf but was “completely shocked and extremely upset” by the images police found, according to the district attorney.

The woman told police that she never consented to being photographed or to the sexual contact recorded on the device.

After he is released from prison, Graf will be be subject to lifetime sex offender registration.

Graf worked in KU's biology department.

This story was originally published January 17, 2016 at 5:04 PM.