By Allen Edmonds
allen@northcassherald.com
HARRISONVILLE – A plea hearing set for Monday in Cass County Circuit Court for Jason L. Carey, a 43-year-old Belton man charged with enticement of a child among numerous other sex-related charges, was delayed due to a power outage at the Justice Center and rescheduled for 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 10, before Presiding Circuit Judge Mike Wagner.
Carey was arrested in the fall of 2022 and has been held without bond since, following an alleged weekend online encounter with a Belton Middle School student he had met while substitute teaching at the school the preceding week.
He was was initially charged with a felony count of enticement of a child less than 15 years old in connection with the female middle school student. Further investigation by the Belton Police Department then resulted in additional charges of molestation of a child younger than 12, and two counts of furnishing pornography to a child younger than 12 in connection with an alleged incident over the summer at his Belton home.
He was eventually charged with two felony counts of enticement of a child less than 15 years of age, in addition to the two felony counts of molestation of child younger than 12 years old, five misdemeanor counts of furnishing pornography to a minor and one count of stalking.
Following his arrest, officers took possession of Carey’s cell phone and obtained a search warrant for the phone and Snapchat accounts belonging to Carey and an eighth-grade girl based on information they had been provided in a report taken by the school resource officer.
According to the affidavit, the school principal reported to the officer that the student had reported receiving “inappropriate pictures” from Carey, who had substituted at the school.
In a direct interview, the student told the officer that Carey had taught in one of her classes, and that she had gone to him and asked “How’s your day?” at one point.
She told the officer that he replied, “better since I’ve seen you now.”
She told the officer that she “thought he was cool,” and asked for his Snapchat name, which he provided, the affidavit said.
She told the officer she showed him her Snapchat, and added him as a firend.
After that day, after school, she received a message from him “stating ‘Hey’ or ‘Hi.’” She told the officer “the messages did not get ‘weird’ until Friday night,” when she allegedly received a message “stating ‘I don’t know if I should be telling you, but your body is beautiful,’ and ‘If you were here, I would be hugging you.’”
According to the affidavit, he messaged that he had had a dream about her, and that the dream involved the two of them involved in sexual activity. The message then went on to graphically describe the activity.
Officers than learned that several girls from the middle school spent the night together on the previous Friday night last September and that several girls were using their Snapchat accounts to communicate with Carey. Screenshots of those comments were observed by the resource officer during his initial investigation. He also obtained four videos from the victims, allegedly sent by Carey. In one of the videos, the suspect’s face is visible, the report said. Each of the videos featured a male individual involved in sexual activity.
During the investigation, officers discovered the existence of an additional female victim. An 8-year-old girl had told her mother that had shown her pornography during an overnight stay with her 10-year-old friend, the child of Carey’s roommate. The mother reported to police that the incident occurred in August of 2022.