Central Point Convicted Sex Offender Back in Court

A Central Point man convicted in 2007 of soliciting sex acts from children online was back in court in an unrelated case Friday.

36-year-old Mark Ray Doty has been held without bail since July.

He had served 16 months of time in prison for encouraging child sex acts online.

Prosecutors say Doty had only been out of prison for a few months when he tried to contact a man he had molested back in 2003.

Prosecutors say the young man came finally came forward this spring saying he had been molested by Doty when he was just 15.

Doty originally faced a felony charge of sodomy and a misdemeanor charge of sexual abuse.

The felony charge was dropped and in court Friday Doty pleaded no contest to the misdemeanor charge.

Prosecutors say he will remain in jail as a pre-sentence investigation report is conducted to document his offender history.

The victim has moved out of the state. Prosecutors say he is happy with the results. He did not want to have to testify in court, or have to see Doty again.

Prosecutor Rachel Bridges says doty has appealed his sentence in the last case and a re-sentencing hearing will be held when it's sent back from the Court of Appeals.

Bridges says Doty wants to see if his convictions on 12 counts of encouraging child sex abuse can be merged under felony sentencing guidelines.

Doty could be sentenced to serve another year in jail on the misdemeanor charge he pleaded no contest to Friday.