A new charge of felony indecent liberties with a child has been filed in Lee County against a former Mebane realtor – who was found guilty in Alamance County this summer of felony indecent liberties with a 13-year-old female.
John Francis Barnhart, 57, white, male, of 5067 Pioneer Drive, Sanford, was arrested on November 20 by the Sanford police department on a charge of felony indecent liberties with a child and released from the Lee County jail on November 21 after posting a $150,000 secured bond. His Lee County court file lists the date of the offense as October 28, 2023 but gives no details about the underlying allegations.
The court file for that charge states, “Defendant was convicted of the same charges in Alamance County,” but lists a different file number for the case in which he was convicted of felony indecent liberties with a child.
“It’s definitely a new charge,” Alamance County court officials told The Alamance News Tuesday when asked about the felony indecent liberties charge that has been filed against Barnhart in Lee County.
Lee County assistant district attorney Tiffany Bartholomew, who has been assigned to prosecute the new felony indecent liberties case against Barnhart, had not responded to multiple inquiries from The Alamance News by press time Wednesday night.
Barnhart was also arrested on December 6 by the Lee County sheriff’s office for felony failure to register as a convicted sex offender, as required by an order that Alamance County superior court judge Andy Hanford entered on July 29, following Barnhart’s conviction in Alamance County. He was released from Lee County jail on December 9 after posting a $10,000 secured bond.
At the conclusion of his trial in Alamance County this summer, Barnhart was sentenced to a minimum of 19 months (one year and seven months), up to a maximum of 32 months (or two years, eight months) and was ordered to complete 36 months of supervised probation upon completion of the active sentence.
However, Barnhart gave notice of appeal at the end of his trial in Alamance County superior court this summer and was allowed to remain free on bond, pending the conclusion of his appeal. His prison sentence will be “activated” only after the appeal is heard, and providing the state Court of Appeals upholds Barnhart’s conviction, Alamance County district attorney Sean Boone explained in an earlier interview with The Alamance News.
Meanwhile, Barnhart – a one-time athletics booster at Eastern High School – had been previously arrested in Alamance County on two other, unrelated offenses that were alleged to have occurred between late 2018 and early 2019.
Then 51 and living at 16 Leeds Court in Mebane, Barnhart was charged in November 2018 with one count of misdemeanor sexual battery and two counts of misdemeanor assault after allegedly making sexual advances toward two teenage female students at Eastern High School. Those charges were dismissed in January 2020 by Alamance County assistant D.A. because the victims could not be located, according to the court files.
Barnhart was also charged in January 2019 with misdemeanor assault on an adult female, who claimed he had grabbed her during an apartment showing at the Lofts at White Furniture on East Center Street in Mebane. A visiting retired district court judge from Rockingham County, Frederick B. Wilkins, Jr., found Barnhart not guilty of assaulting a female in Alamance County district court in August 2020.
He was also convicted in Florida in November 2000 and May 2002 of aggravated assault, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, and failure to appear in court, based on the sentencing worksheet that was entered into Barnhart’s Alamance County court file following his conviction of felony indecent liberties with a child this summer.
Though Barnhart had been an agent with the Coldwell Banker real estate firm in Mebane, documents on file with the North Carolina Real Estate Commission give no indication that he is currently licensed as a real estate agent or broker.
Prior to his initial arrest by the Mebane police department in 2018, Barnhart had served on the board of directors for Destination Downtown Mebane and a bicycle and pedestrian commission for the city of Mebane.
