CONCORD – A Kannapolis man charged last November with fondling Concord school girls
at their bus stop pleaded guilty Tuesday to two counts of taking indecent liberties with a
minor. A Cabarrus County
Superior Court judge sentenced James Kenneth Sackett, 35, to two consecutive sentences of
21 to 26 months. The court also ordered Sackett to undergo counseling for sexual
deviation.
Police originally charged Sackett
with two counts of taking indecent liberties with a minor, assault on a female and
indecent exposure. The court dismissed these last two charges.
Concord police staked out school
bus stops and arrested Sackett on Nov. 4 following a series of assaults on women at car
washes and girls on their way to school.
Police say Sackett approached a
9-year-old girl waiting for her school bus Oct. 28, started masturbating and asked the
girl if she wanted money for performing sexual acts. The girl ran away.
On the same day, a man snuck up on
a 28-year-old woman vacuuming her car at a Kannapolis car wash and groped her, according
to Kannapolis police. When the woman began screaming, her attacker released her and began
masturbating, police said.
An almost identical assault took
place at a China Grove car wash on Nov. 2, and charges against Sackett for attempted
second-degree rape and attempted second-degree kidnapping are pending in Rowan County.
Sackett was convicted in 1992 and
1997 of exposing himself in Kannapolis parking lots. A Colorado court convicted Sackett of
sexual assault, without force, of a child in 1986.
Sackett’s most recent
conviction and sentence relieved law enforcement officials in Concord.
‘‘The experts say sexual
predators like that are incurable, and I think Mr. Sackett’s behavior supports that
theory,’’ Concord Police Maj. Dennis Andrade said this morning. ‘‘His
criminal history would indicate he’s a continual sexual predator. I think the records
show he got into some trouble with his behavior in Colorado. Now here you’ve got a
full grown adult doing it some more at a bus stop with children.
‘‘It’s a
relief’’ Sackett is in prison, he said. |
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