The fresh new arrest follows a month . 
5 a lot of time studies towards the accusations you to Roberts solicited several men having sex and you will made use of their updates because the police master to increase the new believe of the students males
An authorities chief who is and additionally a mayor in the center Georgia try detained because of the GBI to the Wednesday getting allegedly sexting and obtaining intercourse from teenage boys.
The latest towns regarding Molena and you will Concord � during the Pike State about 60 miles southwest regarding Atlanta � is actually each other likely to hold unique named urban area council conferences on the Thursday to address new stop off James Roberts. He had been re also-elected once the and you can lso are-designated Molena police chief within the March if area reinstated its police agencies.
Brand new GBI arrested Roberts into Wednesday immediately after a half dozen-month research with the allegations he solicited at the very least a couple of teenagers getting gender by using his status once the captain to influence him or her, greeting one of many boys discover fuel to help you fill up his automobile and you will utilized his area mobile phone to help you sext the students boys. He was charged with several matters from solicitation away from sodomy and you will one matter from theft from the transformation.
The fresh new GBI detained Molena Police Captain James Roberts now. Roberts, that is in addition to the Mayor out of Concord, given one among these teenagers with his personal code and you may the answer to see county gas so you’re able to fill-up the students people’s actually owned auto.
In Coker, of your own Griffin Official Circuit, expected this new GBI perform a study into allegations facing Roberts. New consult arrived adopting the grandparents of one of your younger men, who was presumably victimized by the Roberts, stated every piece of information into Pike State Sheriff’s Office. The investigation also shown Roberts delivered down and dirty photographs to a juvenile into the their city phone.
New GBI exhibited its findings to help you Griffin Official Routine District Attorney Scott Ballard which determined Roberts might be charged with two counts out-of Solicitation of Sodomy and one matter out of Theft by the Transformation.
After Roberts’ arrest, GBI representatives done look is deserving of at Roberts’ household, the newest Molena Cops Department, Molena Town Hall, and you will Concord Urban area Hall.
Particularly, the Legal stored, new prosecution did not prove the proposed sexual serves was in fact getting did in public areas, in exchange for money otherwise one thing out-of industrial value, from the force, or by the you to definitely legitimately struggling to consenting so you’re able to including acts
Good GBI spokesperson denied to discuss the years of your own alleged sufferers and you can whether they avove the age of 16, the ages of agree in the Georgia. The brand new spokesperson, Sherry Lang, plus won’t state in the event that Roberts given the young males cash about alleged solicitations. She also said a legal has actually once the sealed the case and you will additional facts cannot be discussed.
From inside the , the Georgia Supreme Courtroom put from the belief off a police manager inside Nashville, Ga., whom acquired a 5-seasons prison phrase getting sexting and obtaining intercourse of good 17-year-dated high-school runner. The GBI detained James Edwin Watson in 2009 immediately following performing good pain when the teen complained to help you a high school coach on the Watson requesting sex. Last year, a beneficial jury found guilty your of two felony counts of breaking their oath away from office and two infraction counts of solicitation away from sodomy.
An amount of your own state’s sodomy legislation was left into the 1998, end the fresh new part of the legislation one criminalized �private, unforced, non-industrial serves out-of intimate closeness ranging from persons lawfully in a position to consent.� In Watson’s instance, the state Finest Court stopped their belief and you can ruled that case failed to establish all of the left issue would have to be convicted having solicitation not as much as just what remains of your own state sodomy law. This new courtroom plus spelled out solicitation away from sodomy are illegal merely if your sex act is going to be performed in public, requires the change of cash, is through force or perhaps is with anybody in period of sixteen.
Roberts presided along the Town Council fulfilling when you look at the Concord into Tuesday. His stop astonished Concord Mayor Pro Tem John Strickland, with respect to the AJC.
Strickland said GBI officials came to urban area hallway Wednesday morning so you can check city machines. He told you detectives checked the town clerk’s computers to be sure discover nothing with it, even if Roberts doesn’t play with you to definitely pc. He additional one to detectives didn’t need that pc once determining there is no recommendations relevant to the fact on the website, but performed require some of one’s city’s dry servers together with them so you can inspect.
Nothing yet features implicated the city in every malfeasance, Strickland told you, so there might have been no indication of any wrongdoing by the Roberts inside the potential while the gran.
