New details on Cokley allegations – NBC Boston

Editor’s note: The details of this story may be disturbing.

A man suspected of soliciting several underage girls for sexual purposes in Boston was first caught with his belt buckle unbuckled next to a 16-year-old girl in his car in a Dunkin’ parking lot, prosecutors said Tuesday as they released new details of the investigation that led to a grand jury indictment on 30 counts, including rape of a child.

John Jamar Cokley told police, who pursued him after seeing the child sneak out a window of her home, that “he met the victim through Uber Eats and, in quotes, encouraged her to stay in school,” Assistant District Attorney Ashley Polin said at a dangerousness hearing for the man in Suffolk County Superior Court.

But the girl told a different story: She said she had sex with 38-year-old Cokley at least three times for $60, said Polin, head of the human trafficking and exploitation unit at the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office.

Resources for victims of sexual assault are available through the National Sexual Violence Resources Center and the National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at 800-656-4673and Massachusetts provides this list of statewide resources for victims of sexual assault.

Police pursued Cokley based on a tip from a local high school that the girl was being exploited, Polin said. Investigators saw an Instagram message purportedly from him in which he requested sexually explicit images and videos “so he could see what he was working with.” After his arrest, investigators reviewed digital evidence – he allegedly recorded videos of the children being sexually abused – and concluded that he had exploited five girls and raped two of them.

“The defendant … preyed on these teenage girls and exploited their vulnerability, financial insecurity and emotional immaturity to bully them,” Polin told the judge, arguing for him to be sent to prison before his trial.

The most serious charge against Cokley is forcible rape of a child, which carries a life sentence in prison, Polin said. She called the alleged crime “violent, predatory and dehumanizing” and described him in Instagram messages as someone who taunted her and pretended not to know the meaning of the word “stop.”

Polin said he lured the girls with money and emotional abuse and sexually abused them while posing as a mentor.

Cokley was not allowed to appear in the courtroom for the hearing. He is a father of two children and, according to prosecutors, previously worked for Brighton High School and a Boston nonprofit that supports at-risk youth.

Cokley’s attorney, Bill Sprouse, argued that Cokley maintains his innocence in the face of “very serious allegations” and has already posted bail of $25,000, which was previously set by Dorchester District Court. Sprouse said standard bail conditions such as GPS monitoring and an order to stay away from the victims are sufficient for Cokley.

Judge Mark Hallal asked what could keep Cokley off the internet and social media, where he allegedly conducted much of the grooming activity, and what Polin had asked him to consider in his ruling. Hallal ultimately deliberated the matter without making a decision on the motion to deem Cokley a dangerous offender and scheduled a status hearing for July 9.

Suffolk County District Attorney Michael Hayden previously asked anyone who may have been attacked by Cokley to call the Boston Police Department’s Human Trafficking Unit at 617-343-6533.