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James Carey, 54, will serve 24.5 to 55 years in prison, said Bucks County District Attorney Matthew Weintraub in a statement.
Carey, during his tenure with the Warminster Township Police Department in the 1980s and 1990s, was a D.A.R.E. officer working with school students, a volunteer firefighter, and ran a "troubled youth" program, according to the DA.
Prosecutors argued that Carey used these positions and his status as a respected law enforcement officer to victimize young boys.
“He ingratiated himself into the lives of his victims, this is how he identified the most vulnerable among them, this is how he got away with perpetrating unimaginable sexual crimes upon children,” said First Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Schorn at sentencing on Tuesday.
The officer, she said, was a "predator waiting to pounce."
Authorities began investigating Carey in the spring of 2020 when a 36-year-old man reported that the officer abused him as a child. That probe uncovered allegations from three more self-identified victims, Daily Voice then reported.
After Carey was charged in April 2021, a fifth victim stepped forward. Identified in court records as MW13, the fifth victim described a situation where Carey gave him a ride home after catching him smoking marijuana.
MW13 told investigators that Carey threatened to arrest and charge him before sexually abusing him in his patrol car.
Carey began his career as a police officer for Warminster Township in 1989 — the same year that the first abuses are alleged to have taken place — and retired in 2009.
At sentencing, victims gave statements describing the impact of the abuse on their lives. One described struggling with substance abuse and thoughts of self-harm, while another told Judge Bateman his chance at a normal life had been stolen by a "monster of a human being," the DA said.
“I spent my whole adult life hating myself,” a third victim told the court. “This has impacted every aspect of my life: physically, mentally, financially, and emotionally.”
When Carey was unable to look his accusers in the eye during sentencing, the DA said, Judge Bateman called him a coward who wielded his "badge and uniform as weapons of his depravity.”
Judge Bateman also criticized the Warminster Township Police Department for its handling of the allegations against Carey.
“When a young man goes into the police department to make a report I would expect a more professional response,” the judge said.
In addition to the hefty sentence, the 54-year-old Carey was branded a sexually violent predator at the Tuesday hearing.
Last October, Carey had entered a no-contest plea to five counts each of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and corruption of minors, seven counts of indecent assault, two counts each of statutory rape and statutory sexual assault, and one count of aggravated indecent assault, the District Attorney noted.
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