BUCKS COUNTY, PA (BCDAO) – James Carey, the former Warminster Township police officer who sexually assaulted five boys, was sentenced on Tuesday, March 21, 2023, to serve 24 ½ to 55 years in a state correctional institution.
Carey, 54, of Cape May Court House in New Jersey, committed the acts while working as a DA.R.E. officer, a volunteer firefighter and while running a program for troubled youth at the township’s recreation center more than two decades ago.
Carey entered an open no contest plea on Oct 27, 2022, to five counts each of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and corruption of minors, seven counts of indecent assault, two counts each of statutory rape and statutory sexual assault and one count of aggravated indecent assault.
Prior to sentencing President Judge Wallace H. Bateman Jr., heard impact statements from the five victims who courageously testified about the emotional trauma the disgraced officer inflicted on them.
One man said the damage caused years of anger and resentment, leading to substance abuse, incarceration, and suicide attempts.
Another said his chance at a normal life was stolen by a “monster of a human being.”
Another victim said he lived his adolescent years in fear, blaming himself for Carey’s actions.
“I spent my whole adult life hating myself,” he said. “This has impacted every aspect of my life: physically, mentally, financially and emotionally.”
Noticing Carey wouldn’t look at the victims as they made their statements or look at their childhood photos projected on a screen in the courtroom, Judge Bateman called Carey a coward who used his “badge and uniform as weapons of his depravity.”
First Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Schorn said Carey not only used his positions as a police officer and a volunteer firefighter to lure his victims, he also used their families, the community and even the court system.
“He ingratiated himself into the lives of his victims, this is how he identified the most vulnerable among them, this is how he got away with perpetrating unimaginable sexual crimes upon children,” said Schorn, describing Carey as a “predator waiting to pounce.”
Schorn credited detectives and their unrelenting pursuit to locate victims and praised the victims as some of the most courageous men she’s ever met as a prosecutor. Carey was arrested on April 7, 2021, following a lengthy investigation by Bucks County Detectives and an inquiry by a Bucks County Investigating Grand Jury that found Carey sexually assaulted four boys between 1989 and 2009.
The next month following the publicity of his arrest, a fifth victim came forward and Carey faced additional charges. The victim in that case said he was 13 when Carey sexually assaulted him. Carey used his position as a uniformed officer assigned to the D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program to take advantage of victims who were already facing challenges in their lives.
At a preliminary hearing in June 2021, the victims, now in their 30s and 40s, testified about the repeated abuse by Carey.
Most of the assaults happened while Carey was in uniform, the victims testified. Carey was a police officer for Warminster Township from 1989 to 2009, and previously and briefly worked for the North Wales Police Department in Montgomery County (June 1988 to August 1988) and the Warwick Township Police Department (July 1988 to May 1989).
“It doesn’t get much worse: When someone in a position of trust does what he did, it shakes the community to its core,” Schorn said.
In addition to the sentence, Carey was also deemed a sexually violent predator. During Tuesday’s sentencing, Bateman also criticized the actions of the police department during the time Carey worked there for failing to do more for the victims.
“When a young man goes into the police department to make a report I would expect a more professional response,” he said. T
he case was prosecuted by First Assistant District Attorney Jennifer M. Schorn and Deputy District Attorney Brittney Kern.
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