Hotel manager to plead guilty to assaulting boys

AUSTIN, TEXAS (KXAN) -- Douglas Ward plans to plead guilty Friday to charges against him in lieu of going to trial. In exchange for this plea bargain, he will get 25 years in prison, according to his attorney.

Ward is accused of molesting two children at a motel he managed in East Austin earlier in 2008.

The 46-year-old was arrested in late June on six felony counts, including aggravated sexual assault of a child and retaliation.

Ward was a manager at the Budget Lodge at Interstate 35 and Rundberg when police arrested him.

The two boys, ages 10 and 12, said Ward sexually assaulted them at the motel. Court documents said he forced the boys to take naked pictures of themselves, performed a sexual act on one of them and threatened to kill them if they told anyone.

One of the boys told police the assault had been going on for months.