Times Chronicle & Public Spirit
Former D.A.R.E. officer jailed after bail increase
James Carey charged with molesting children
A former North Wales and Warminster police officer accused of sexually abusing children while working as a D.A.R.E. officer has had his bail increased.
The Bucks
County District Attorney’s office said Wednesday that bail has been increased for James Carey, 52, on
charges filed earlier this month.
According to the Bucks DA’s office, Bucks County President Judge Wallace H. Bateman Jr. increased the bail for Carey to $250,000 cash bail, up from a level of ten percent of $100,000 bail set when he was arraigned on April 7; Bateman called that level “woefully inadequate,” according to the DA’s office.
Carey was charged on April 7 with 122 total counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, statutory sexual assault, aggravated indecent assault, indecent assault, unlawful contact with a minor, corruption of minors, and official oppression.
During a bail modification hearing on April 20, according to the DA’s office, Bucks County First Assistant District Attorney Jennifer M. Schorn argued that Carey poses a danger to the community by remaining free, and should be considered a flight risk, who could use his credentials as a retired police officer to legally carry a firearm throughout the country. As part of the new bail conditions, Bateman has ordered Carey to surrender his passport and police credentials and to have no contact with minors.
Carey was unable to post the higher bail and was ordered sent to county jail Wednesday.
The Bucks DA’s office has also received “a number of leads and calls” from other potential victims, which detectives are currently investigating, according to Bucks County Detective Greg Beidler.
According to the Bucks DA’s office, Carey worked as an officer for the North Wales Police Department from June to August 1988, and for the Warwick Township
Police Department from July 1988 to May 1989, before joining the Warminster Township police department from 1989 to 2009.
The DA’s office alleges that Carey used his position as a D.A.R.E. officer at the Centennial School District to gain access to teenagers. In addition, Carey worked with the Warminster Police Teen Activity Corps where he supervised teens at the township’s Rec Center and took teenage boys on overnight camping trips, ran the Fire Explorers program for the Warminster Township Fire Department and volunteered with the local Boy Scouts.
Bucks County detectives initially investigated Carey in 2001 after Warminster Township police received a report that he had inappropriate contact with a boy, who was 17 at the time. Due to the age of consent being 16 and due to not having full information about what had happened, no charges were filed in 2001.
However, the District Attorney in 2001, Diane Gibbons, wrote a letter to the Warminster Township Police Department that advised that Carey’s behavior and conduct was very concerning. Gibbons, now a Bucks County Common Pleas Judge, advised that while criminal charges could not be filed, her office had grave concerns about the safety of the community with Carey being employed as a police officer with the Warminster Township Police Department.
Carey remained with the police department until 2005 when he was fired at the rank of a sergeant, for reasons unrelated to his inappropriate contact with minors. Through arbitration, he got his job back in December 2006, at a demoted rank of corporal. While he was fired, Carey worked at the Driftwood Campground in Cape May County, New Jersey, where he also lived.