A registered sex offender could receive up to 20 years in prison after pleading Thursday to charges that he sexually assaulted two Dundalk teenagers near Annapolis after doing shots of liquor he had bought for them and two other girls.
James Mason III, 29, of the 100 block of Simms Drive in Annapolis entered what is called an Alford plea, acknowledging that prosecutors had enough evidence to convict him, but allowing him to assert his innocence.
He had been charged with second-degree rape and third-degree sex offense in the case, which involved girls who were 13 and 14 years old. He is scheduled to be sentenced in August.
Anne Arundel County Assistant State's Attorney Kathleen Rogers told Circuit Judge Paul A. Hackner that Mason, calling himself "Marco," met the 13-year-old on MySpace. She told police she and three other girls, the oldest of whom was 15, wanted to go drinking, and arranged for Mason to pick them up in Dundalk on July 8 of last year.
They stopped at a liquor store, then went to his friend's home near Annapolis. After doing shots, at least three of the girls became sick, Rogers said. He took the 13-year-old with him to McDonald's and sexually assaulted her in his car before going through the drive-in for food and returning to the house, she said. He then took a 14-year-old outside and sexually assaulted her, Rogers said.
The girls locked themselves in a bathroom, where one texted her father from her cellphone, saying they were scared, didn't know where they were and that one of them had been raped, Rogers said. Her father contacted Baltimore County police, who determined her approximate location from her phone. Anne Arundel County police then found Mason's silver Mercedes-Benz.
Rogers said Mason told police the 13-year-old had told him she was 18, though she denied saying that. The prosecutor said that Mason told them when he picked up four girls that he didn't think they looked 18, "but he didn't want to waste the trip."
At the time, Mason was on probation and on the state sex offender registry. He had been sentenced for an attempted second-degree sex offense in Prince George's County to five years in prison, followed by five years of supervised probation, according to court records. A concurrent prison term was for an assault in Anne Arundel County.
