44-year-old charged with sex abuse

The New Port Richey man made four teens have sex with each other while he watched, affidavits say.

By TAMARA LUSH

© St. Petersburg Times, published March 22, 2000

NEW PORT RICHEY -- After work on Monday, James Kenneth Day told his mother that he was going to Wal-Mart to buy a new pair of pants so he would look presentable in court.

James Kenneth Day

Day, who was scheduled to stand trial Tuesday on a misdemeanor count of soliciting lewd activity, never bought the pants or went to court. The 44-year-old construction worker was arrested Monday at his home in his dirty work jeans by a Pasco County sheriff's deputy.

Day is facing 16 new charges, according to sheriff's officials: four counts of lewd and lascivious acts on a child under 16, four counts of involuntary sexual battery, four counts of sexual performance by a child and four counts of child abuse.

Detective James Browning said Day, of the Moon Lake area of New Port Richey, sexually abused four juveniles, three younger than 16, last July. Two of the victims were girls, he said. The victims' identities were not released by the Sheriff's Office.

Officials did not release the circumstances of the alleged abuse because they said that would reveal the identity of the victims.

Day made the teens have sex with each other while he watched and forced them to pose for nude photographs, the affidavit stated. One of the victims, who is now 16, told authorities that Day has forced her to perform sexual acts on him for the past several years.

"(Day) gave them alcoholic beverages and showed them pornographic movies," Browning wrote.

Day is being held at the county jail in Land O'Lakes. Bail was set at $240,000.

In October, Pasco deputies charged Day with one count of involuntary sexual battery and three counts of sexual performance by a child; those charges were amended to one count of soliciting lewd activity.

The trial on that charge has been rescheduled for May 2.

A 16-year-old girl who was a victim in the October case is also involved in the recent charges, said sheriff's spokesman Kevin Doll.

Day's mother, Mildred Butler of Kentucky, said her son is a hard-working man who is innocent. "I know he didn't have anything to do with this," said Butler, who came to Florida to support her son during his previously scheduled trial. "No sirree."

- Times staff writer Tamara Lush is the police reporter in Pasco County. She can be reached in west Pasco at 869-6245 or (800) 333-7505, ext. 6245. Her e-mail address is lush@sptimes.com.

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