Man gets 12 years in molestation

January 23, 2006

By Patti Dozier The Times Enterprise Mon Jan 23, 2006, 10:07 PM EST

THOMASVILLE — A Thomas County man was sentenced Monday to a dozen years in prison in a 2005 child molestation case.

James Dean Gossett, 39, was sentenced to a 20-year prison term, 12 to serve and eight on probation after a December guilty plea to child molestation.

Also on Monday, Thomas County Superior Court Judge Harry Jay Altman sentenced Gossett to 20 years probation, concurrent, on a plea to enticing a child for indecent purposes.

Bond was denied, and Gossett has been in the Thomas County Jail since he was arrested in June 2005.

He was returned to jail Monday, where he will await transfer to the state prison system.

When Gossett is released from prison, he will be required to register as a sex offender with the sheriff’s office in the county in which he resides.

Gossett was charged in June with five counts of child molestation and one of enticing a child for indecent purposes.

He was arrested after the mother of his victim told Thomas County Sheriff’s Office investigators she suspected Gossett of inappropriate behavior with her 13-year-old daughter.

The woman and her daughter met with sheriff’s office investigator Jason Carroll, and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation entered the case the same day in late June.

The woman told authorities Gossett was writing letters to her daughter and keeping diary-type writings about the teen.

In June, Carroll said Gossett committed indecent and immoral acts in the presence of the girl. He had been fondling her about a year, Carroll said in June.

Senior reporter Patti Dozier can be reached at (229) 226-2400, ext. 220.