A Pennsylvania man who eluded police for 23 years after repeatedly molesting a 10-year-old Riverside boy appeared Thursday at the Burlington County Courthouse in Mount Holly to answer to a bail-jumping charge.
Superior Court Judge Charles Delehey revoked James Wade Barclay’s original $300,000 bail and set his new bail at $150,000 during a hearing the defendant attended from the Burlington County Jail via video monitor. The Altoona resident, who formerly lived on Glenview Drive in Cinnaminson, is being held at the jail in Mount Holly.
“Now all of this makes little difference at this time, because on the underlying (sex assault) charge you do not have any bail,” Delehey said.
The case will be referred to a grand jury for indictment. Sentencing on the original sex-assault charge has been scheduled for July 11.
Barclay, 48, one of Burlington County’s and New Jersey’s most wanted fugitives, molested his victim 15 times between August 1988 and July 1989, authorities said.
He was arrested in 1989 in Cinnaminson and pleaded guilty in March 1991 to charges of aggravated sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a child. He faced five years in prison.
But instead of going to his Sept. 5, 1991, sentencing, Barclay fled. He lived in obscurity under the name James C. Toryone and worked as a tractor-trailer driver in rural Pennsylvania.
The investigation showed he used a fictitious Social Security number to obtain a driver’s license and other documents, according to the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office. Barclay was even able to purchase a house and firearms.
His run from the law ended April 5, when authorities apprehended him after a three-day stakeout at a “Stop N Ride” parking lot in the rural town of Boswell, Pa. He was held in the Somerset County, Pa., jail and transported to the Mount Holly jail on April 8 after waiving extradition.