A local man convicted of sex crimes against a child by an Alamance County jury in July has been charged by Sanford police with a count of the same offense.
According to the Lee County Jail’s website, 57-year-old John Barnhart of Pioneer Drive in Sanford faces a count of indecent liberties with a child. Barnhart was arrested by the Sanford Police Department and booked Wednesday on a $150,000 secured bond.
Details about the case against Barnhart weren’t immediately available, but Barnhart was convicted in July of the same charge stemming from a case brought against him in 2021 by the Mebane Police Department.
At the time of that arrest, Barnhart was facing multiple charges of assault on a female and sexual battery stemming from a 2018 arrest. He was acquitted of those charges in December 2021. According to a report in the News of Orange, Barnhart had a lengthy history of facing similar charges:
Barnhart’s past record includes multiple charges of Lewd or Lascivious Molestation in 2000, and a conviction of Contributing to the Delinquency of a Minor in 2002, all in the state of Florida. He was sentenced to probation. In 2004, Barnhart was found guilty of violating state probation.
In Mebane, Barnhart was a real estate agent and active in business and community groups, including involvement with the Interact Club at Eastern Alamance High School. He now resides in Lee County.
Barnhart was sentenced to six months in prison following the Alamance County conviction, and required to register as a sex offender for 30 years upon release and undergo 36 months of mental evaluation and supervised probation. Sanford police said he was not in prison at the time of his arrest on Wednesday.
Authorities declined to say whether the new charge was related to the Alamance County case, but disclosed that their investigation began on July 21, eight days before his conviction.
