KANSAS CITY, Mo. – A convicted rapist at the center of a 2001 U.S. Supreme Court case involving inmate rights is accused of raping a 14-year-old girl he took to Tennessee to participate in a talent show.
Nashville police say 55-year-old Robert Gene Lile repeatedly raped the girl while threatening her with a knife before leaving her Sunday in a local hotel.
Lile co-founded a talent agency in suburban Kansas City after serving 20 years in prison. Police say he was the girl's manager.
Lile was arrested Monday in Missouri. He'll soon be transferred to Tennessee.
Lile was convicted of raping a teenager in 1982. He later unsuccessfully challenged Kansas' sex offender rehabilitation program before the Supreme Court.
Lile wasn't on Kansas' sex offender list because his conviction occurred before the law took effect.
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