A former Warminster cop’s attempt to withdraw his plea in a sex-assault case was denied
James Carey, 54, will be sentenced on several counts of sexual assault and related offenses in February.
A former Warminster Township police officer who entered a no-contest plea last year to sexually assaulting five teens lost his bid Friday to withdraw that plea and head to trial.
James Carey, 54, entered the plea to several counts of involuntary sexual deviate intercourse, rape, statutory rape, corruption of minors, and related offenses in October. But he filed a motion in December in an attempt to overturn it, surprising prosecutors just days before he was scheduled to be sentenced in the case.
During a hearing Friday in Doylestown, Carey testified before Bucks County Judge Wallace Bateman, saying he has been treated poorly in jail while awaiting that sentence, and was not in a stable mental state when he agreed to the plea in the fall.
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By pleading no-contest, Carey did not admit guilty, but did not dispute the facts of the case presented by prosecutors.
Bateman, however, did not find Carey’s testimony to be credible, and denied his motion. Carey is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 27, and faces a maximum of 94½ to 189 years in prison, according to prosecutors.
His attorneys, Sarah Webster and Josh Buchanan, did not return requests for comments Friday.
After Carey’s arrest in 2021, Bucks County District Attorney Matt Weintraub called him a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” for the way he befriended his victims during his time as a police officer.
Carey, who retired from Warminster in 2009, met the boys as a school resource officer for the D.A.R.E. antidrug program in the Centennial School District, and through his volunteer work at a local rec center.
In court documents, the victims described Carey’s overly jocular and friendly behavior over the course of several years. They told prosecutors that Carey would create situations to isolate them and then sexually assault them, in some instances forcing them to perform sex acts on him.
Rumors of Carey’s behavior swirled in the township for years, but it wasn’t until 2020, when one of the victims came forward after decades of silence, that the investigation into his behavior began.