Courtesy Photo­Image James Hobbs

Courtesy Photo­Image Mark Houpt

Courtesy Photo­Image Kristin Lehn

In Lincoln County District Court Monday, James S. Hobbs, 22, of North Platte was sentenced to 10-20 years in the Nebraska State Penitentiary for sexual assault of a child.

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Hobbs was convicted of having sex with a 15-year-old North Platte girl he met on the Internet. He was arrested in January and has been in jail since.

As part of his sentence, Lincoln County District Judge Donald Rowlands ordered Hobbs to register for life as a sexual predator.

During a long defense presentation, attorney Kent Florom laid out some of the details of the case.

Hobbs had met the girl on an Internet chat room and they e-mailed several times. On one occasion the girl told him she was only a block away and had told her mother she was going out with someone else. Her mother told her to be home by 10 p.m. She went to meet Hobbs.

She and Hobbs drove around in his truck and ended up at Lake Maloney and had sexual relations. When they were leaving the lake Hobbs told the girl she might as well not get dressed but she told him she didn’t want to ride around undressed. She covered her upper body and they went out to a spot near the Red Roof Antiques and again had sexual relations.

In her deposition, the girl said she knew Hobbs’ age and had no problem with his age. She also said she didn’t try to get away because Hobbs wouldn’t let her get fully dressed, and he had her cell phone and she needed that to call for help or else she would be stranded.

Florom tried to downplay the crime by presenting information that the girl was sexually active before meeting Hobbs and that she misled him by telling him she was 18.

But Rowlands was unpersuaded and sentenced Hobbs to a minimum of 10 years.

In other district court action:

• Mark Houpt, 38, of North Platte was sentenced to 2-6 years in the penitentiary for attempted distribution of methamphetamine.

Houpt was arrested March 28 after he sold a half-gram of meth to a confidential informant.

Houpt has a history of drug charges. He was arrested Dec. 22 after he ingested a handful of his girlfriend’s Xanax pills. And, just a few days earlier, he was charged with theft after police found he’d sold a car that was allegedly abandoned on his property. The two incidents were consolidated and Houpt was sentenced to 90 days in jail.

In April 2010, Houpt was arrested for possessing oxycodone with intent to deliver.

Lehn

• Kristin Lehn, 40, of North Platte was sentenced to 270 days in the Lincoln County Jail on two counts of possession of meth.

Lt. Lynn Williams of the Nebraska State Patrol said a concerned citizen reported in early April that Kristin Lehn and her husband Zane were cooking meth in their home.

Investigators found chemicals commonly known as precursors for making the drug as well as evidence of a meth lab that was not operating at the time.

Both Kristin and her husband Zane were initially charged with manufacturing meth and felony child abuse.

Zane Lehn, 35, was sentenced July 16 to 2-6 years in the state penitentiary.