Ex-Warminster Cop Seeks To Withdraw No Contest Plea On Sex Charges: DA

WARMINSTER, PA —With sentencing scheduled for Monday, an ex-Warminster Township police officer facing up to 185 years in prison for sexually abusing five boys has asked to withdraw his plea.

In late October, James Carey entered into a no-contest plea to sexually abusing five boys while serving as an officer in the D.A.R.E program, Bucks County authorities said.

Carey —a police officer for Warminster Township from 1989 to 2009—was facing a possible 94-to-185-year prison sentence, according to Bucks County prosecutors.

Manuel Gamiz Jr., communications director for the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office, said Friday that Carey's attorney filed a motion to withdraw his plea and that the paperwork is filed with the Clerk of Courts.

Gamiz did not say whether a reason was given for the plea withdrawal but that the District Attorney's Office will oppose the motion.

A message was left at the Doylestown law office of Carey's attorney Sara Webster on Friday.

Carey had entered the open plea to five counts each of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, indecent assault, and corruption of minors and two counts each of statutory rape and statutory sexual assault and one count of aggravated indecent assault.

Carey, 54, of Cape May Court House, N.J., is accused of sexually assaulting five teenage boys. He committed the acts, prosecutors said, while working as a DA.R.E. officer and running a program for troubled youth at the township’s recreation center.

Carey was arrested in April 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. That May, he was charged with the sexual assault of a fifth victim.