The man accused of molesting children at his wife’s Maryland day care was denied bail on Tuesday, and police said the investigation is broadening.
The Baltimore County police told WTOP that more potential victims are being interviewed in connection with the accusations against James Weems Jr., of Randallstown, Maryland.
According to multiple reports, investigators are in the process of speaking with 93 kids who attended the Lil Kidz Kastle day care, in Owings Mills, run by Weems’ wife, Shanteari Weems.
James Weems, 57, is currently facing 13 charges, including sexual abuse of three minors, but police say the number of charges may grow.
He was shot by his wife at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Southwest D.C. on July 21.
Shanteari Weems, 50, told police that she had “received multiple messages and phone calls from parents and teachers” about sexual abuse allegations at the day care center, and went to meet her husband of five years at the hotel, according to an affidavit.
She repeatedly asked him about the accusations, and it escalated into an argument, she told police.
James Weems was shot in the head and leg and was hospitalized in D.C. Shanteari Weems was arrested and faces multiple charges.
On Friday, a D.C. Superior Court judge ordered her held without bond and determined that there was enough evidence for the case to go to trial.
Her lawyer contends that the argument between the couple turned violent and she shot her husband in self-defense.
Activists have been showing up at her court hearings and voicing their support online with the hashtag #freeshanteari.
James Weems was a Baltimore city police officer from 1996 to 2005 and then a “contract specialist” doing administrative work until 2008, police there said.
His next court appearance is set for Aug. 26.
