In Ex-Cop's Child-Sex Case, Bucks Co. DA Pushes For No Bail

WARMINSTER, PA — Bucks County prosecutors are trying to increase bail for a former police officer accused of sexually abusing four teen boys as young as 13 while he was still on the force.

Christopher Carey, 53, of Cape May Court House, N.J., remains free after posting 10 percent of $100,000 bail last week. The former Warminster Township Police officer faces 122 counts on charges that include statutory sexual assault and involuntary deviate intercourse.

The Bucks County District Attorney's Office has filed a petition requesting Carey's bail to be increased. A court hearing on the request has been scheduled for 1:30 p.m. on April 20.

In a letter to the Bucks County Court of Common Pleas, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Schorn writes that Carey poses a danger to the community and is a flight risk. She notes that, as a retired police officer, he is permitted to carry a firearm anywhere in the United States without a permit.

Schorn also writes that investigators believe there may be more victims in the case.

"Several independent sources provided this information to the Commonwealth," she wrote. "These investigative leads are presently being pursued, however the investigation may take time given the nature of the allegations and given the need to travel out of state to conduct interviews."

In addition to increasing Carey's bail, the letter asks the court to add a stipulation to his bail that would bar him from having any contact with minors.

Carey worked for Warminster Township from May 1989 until he retired from the force in May of 2009. Prosecutors say he abused all four boys while he was an officer.

According to the charges against him, Carey met his victims through a variety of youth-oriented roles, including serving as an anti-drug D.A.R.E. officer at Log College Middle School. Two of his four accusers say they were 13-years-old when the abuse began.

The charges were the result of a grand jury investigation. The incidents his accusers describe include one boy saying Carey locked him in the bathroom of a Warminster community center and patted him down in a drug search before eventually performing a sex act on him.

Prosecutors say their investigation connected Carey to another man — Charles "Chuck" Goodenough, 60, of Warminster, through a shared connection to the Boy Scouts and the Warminster Township Fire Department. Goodenough and Carey together ran the township's Fire Explorers program.

On Feb. 26, Bucks County detectives served a search warrant at Goodenough's Warminster home and seized electronic devices. Three days later, on March 1, Goodenough was found dead in his home of an apparent suicide by drug overdose.

Last week, Bucks County District Attorney Matthew Weintraub said prosecutors had "argued vigorously" for Carey to be denied bail.

Authorities continue to call for any other victims in the case to come forward and tell their stories.

Last week, Warminster Police Chief James C. Donnelly III called Carey's alleged crimes "cowardly" and thanked his accusers "for having the strength and courage to come forward and speak about these allegations."