Indiana man charged in Douglas County child sex case from 2001
A Terre Haute man was jailed on a Douglas County child-sex charge tied to a 2001 allegation, after Kansas removed the statute of limitations in 2023.
John Matthew Lotz, a 62-year-old man from Terre Haute, Indiana, was booked into the Douglas County Jail on Tuesday and charged in Douglas County District Court with one count of aggravated indecent liberties with a child. The felony filing says the allegation dates to a window between Feb. 1 and April 1, 2001, when Lotz allegedly had sexual intercourse with a teenager younger than 16.
The complaint says the alleged victim was born in 1985, though part of the birth date was omitted from the filing. Lotz was being held on a $100,000 bond, and his next court appearance was scheduled for Tuesday. The charge is serious enough that a conviction could bring a prison sentence of about 4 1/2 years to more than 20 years, along with a possible fine of up to $300,000.
Kansas law defines aggravated indecent liberties with a child to include sexual intercourse with a child who is at least 14 but younger than 16. State offender-registration materials also list the offense among sex crimes that can require lifetime registration, underscoring the stakes if prosecutors prove the allegation in court.
The timing of the filing matters as much as the allegation itself. Kansas eliminated the criminal statute of limitations for child sex abuse in 2023, opening the door for prosecutors to pursue older cases when evidence later surfaces. That change is central to why a 2001 accusation could still result in a 2026 charge in Douglas County, even with the defendant living in another state.
Douglas County has already seen another decades-old child-sex case move forward. In December 2025, Lawrence police and the Douglas County District Attorney’s Office announced an arrest in child-sex-assault cases from 2000 and 2003, saying DNA and genetic genealogy helped identify a suspect. Together, the cases show how older allegations can still become prosecutable years later when investigators believe the evidence is strong enough to support a filing.
For Douglas County prosecutors, the Lotz case is still only at the start of the process. The complaint is an allegation, not a conviction, and the court will still have to sort through bond, scheduling and the legal sufficiency of a case rooted more than 25 years in the past.
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