BUCKS COUNTY, Pa. (KYW Newsradio) — A former Warminster police officer will spend decades in prison for sexually assaulting five boys while working with a program designed to keep kids off drugs.
The abuse happened between 1988 and 2000. Prosecutor Jenn Schorn said James Carey, 54, worked in the Centennial School District as a resource officer with the D.A.R.E. program, which stands for “drug abuse resistance education.”
“His sole focus was to help kids to guide them to help them make the right decisions,” Schorn said.
“He used [his badge] to access these children. He used it to ingratiate himself in their lives. He gained their trust and admiration only to victimize them in the worst way possible. It doesn't get much worse than that.”
Carey is sentenced to 24 ½ to 55 years in state prison on more than a dozen charges.
He was arrested in 2021 after an 80-page grand jury report laid out allegations that he used his authority to access his victims, gaining the boys’ trust either by acting as a father figure or isolating them as part of a drug investigation.
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Five men gave victim impact statements at Carey’s sentencing hearing on Tuesday. Schorn called their testimony “powerful.”
“You really can see the direct correlation between child sexual abuse, the trauma that these victims suffer, and then how it impacts their life moving forward,” she said.
“How their life would have been different if they were not victimized by James Carey. The regret they've lived with — the struggle, sometimes, with sobriety — the regrets for failed relationships with their loved ones.”
Carey was investigated for similar behavior in 2001 and in 2006, but no charges were filed. Carey was fired in 2005 for mishandling a case, but he got his job back through arbitration. He retired in 2009.
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