Boulder man takes plea deal for harboring missing teen girl

Mitchell Byars, Daily Camera, Boulder, Colo.
·3 min read

Sep. 12—A Boulder man arrested after detectives found a missing 14-year-old girl at his home in May has accepted a plea deal in his case.

James Wendell Dean, 51, pleaded guilty on Sept. 6 in Boulder District Court to a felony count of violation of a custody order and a misdemeanor count of harboring a minor.

As part of the plea agreement, attorneys agreed that Dean would serve two years of probation, with the condition he not have any contact with the named victim. The probation will be unsupervised if he remains out of state, but will be supervised if he resides in Colorado.

He was also sentenced to 118 days in jail, but was given credit for time served as he had been in custody while awaiting the resolution of the case.

Dean was originally also charged with sexual exploitation of a child, but prosecutors dismissed that charge in July "due to the state of the evidence."

Boulder County District Attorney's Office spokeswoman Shannon Carbone said Dean would be looking at prison time were to violate the protection order again.

"We worked closely with the victim's family leading up to the plea and given the amount of jail he served while the case was pending, the sentence in this case is the right result," Carbone said in a statement. "In addition, the input from the victim's family was important in determining the right outcome, particularly with regards to the no-contact order and the consequences for any violation."

The 14-year-old girl was reported missing on May 11 after going to Manhattan Middle School, 290 Manhattan Drive, according to a release. She walked in to the school, but was marked absent from all classes.

According to an affidavit, Dean was already under investigation for having an ongoing illegal sexual relationship with the girl.

The day after the girl was reported missing, police searched Dean's unit in the 5100 block of Santa Clara Place in Boulder as well as the unit of his adult son who lived upstairs, but officers did not find the girl.

According to a release, detectives with the Boulder County Digital Forensics Lab worked with members of the FBI and the Boulder County Drug Task Force to track a social media post made by the girl after she went missing to Dean's residence.

Detectives applied for a warrant to search Dean's residence again two days after the girl was reported missing and this time were able to find her hiding in the bedroom.

The girl admitted she had also been hiding in the bedroom the first time police searched Dean's residence.

Friends of the teen also told detectives the girl had been planning to run away with Dean for months and that they helped her by moving her clothes to his place or letting her use their phones to communicate with him and send him photos.

According to the affidavit, Dean initially claimed the teen showed up to his home just before searchers arrived. But after being confronted with the girl's statements, Dean said "She showed up. Emotional. Freaking out. Crying. Scared to death. What was I supposed to do?"

Court records show a judge had granted a temporary restraining order against Dean in which the teen was the protected party at the time she was found in his home.