PAWNEE COUNTY—A Kansas man accused of child sex crimes appeared in Pawnee County District court Wednesday.
Shelby Lee Starr, 48 of Great Bend, appeared for an evidentiary Preliminary Hearing on a single count of Aggravated Indecent Liberties; lewd fondling, of a child under the age of 14, according to Pawnee County Attorney Doug McNett.
The alleged incident was reported by a mandatory reporter to the Kansas Department of Children and Families on February 17, 2023, and was additionally investigated by the Larned Police Department. The alleged acts occurred at separate private residences in Larned sometime between 2016 and the Summer of 2017.
Magistrate Judge Julie Cowell found the State presented sufficient evidence to support two separate sexual offenses and bound the Starr over to the higher court on two counts of Aggravated Indecent Liberties. Arraignment has been scheduled for October 26, 2023.
Starr was arrested in Barton County on April 1, 2023, without incident. He has been in the custody of the Pawnee County Sheriff since his arrest. Bond is currently set at $100,000 cash or surety.
He has been registered as a sex offender since 2001 for child sex crime convictions in Georgia in 1998, according to the Sex Offender Registry.