Jerome Butts
A former Atlantic County resident accused of sexually assaulting an underage girl for years more than two decades ago was ordered held in jail Monday.
Jerome Butts, 54, is charged with 10 criminal counts, including first-degree aggravated sexual assault and child endangerment for the alleged abuse that lasted from when the now-grown woman was about 12 until she was 18.
The victim’s mother went to police in April, after her daughter told her of the abuse. Butts was arrested last month in Alabama, where he now lives with his wife.
Butts apologizes for his actions in two recorded FaceTime calls made this past April and June, according to the affidavit of probable cause.
“Whatever you went through and whatever you’re going through, I am so sorry,” he said. “I can blame it on a lot of stuff and justify it, but I won’t. I made amends with my Lord already.”
The abuse allegedly began when the girl was living in Atlantic City around 1999, when she was 12 years old, and continued through moves to Pleasantville and Sicklerville.
“I didn’t take your virginity until 2002,” Butts told her in a recording, saying he did not have intercourse with her before then.
Butts previously has served prison time for drug and weapons offenses, but has not been in trouble since his release in 2010, when he got sober, defense attorney Melissa Rosenblum said. He moved to Alabama in 2013.
The defense attorney did point out that Butts was out of prison only briefly in 1998 and back in for a violation in 1999, making it unlikely the abuse occurred then.
The victim’s age is significant, since a victim younger than 13 usually often is what constitutes a first-degree charge, Rosenblum argued.
She also noted that the Lunsford Act — which carries a mandatory term of 25 years to life for aggravated sexual assault against a child younger than 13 — was not enacted until 2005, meaning Butts cannot be charged under the statute.
Because of that, the burden was on the state to overcome the presumption of pretrial release.
But the state was able to do that, with Judge Dorothy Garrabrant agreeing with the public safety assessment recommending Butts be held.
“He preyed on the victim when she was 12 years old, and continued to do so until she reached the age of majority,” Garrabrant said in making her decision. “The defendant unabashedly admitted that it was not the victim’s fault because she was only a child, and saying no would not have stopped him.”
Butts also could face more charges in the case.
After his arrest, the victim began getting threatening text messages “that were very clearly related to her disclosure and this case,” Assistant Prosecutor Elizabeth White told the judge.
She tried to read the messages into the record, but Rosenblum successfully objected due to having no prior knowledge of the texts.
The judge agreed, pointing out that the messages are still part of an ongoing investigation, and that Butts has not been charged with them at this point.
