A 59-year-old Anne Arundel County police sergeant with 31 years on the force is being held at the Jennifer Road Detention Center after being charged with second-degree rape, sex abuse of a minor, and second-degree assault involving a girl. Sergeant James Brooke Shoults, who lives in Severna Park, is accused of abusing the girl at his own house on January 10.
The victim reported the assault to Maryland State Police on July 7, according to WBAL News Radio, which first reported the charges Monday. State police opened their investigation after that report, and the station notes Shoults has a bail review hearing scheduled. Anyone with information has been asked to email Senior Trooper Dustin Pope at [email protected].
Anne Arundel County Police Chief Amal E. Awad addressed the case directly, saying the allegations are serious and disturbing and, if true, inconsistent with police standards, per the station's report. Awad, appointed in December 2020, became the department's 19th chief of police and the first woman and first African American to lead the agency, according to Anne Arundel County Government.
Timeline From Notification to Arrest
In an official statement issued Monday, the Anne Arundel County Police Department confirmed that Shoults was assigned to its Bureau of Patrol and that departmental leadership first learned of the Maryland State Police investigation on July 20, according to the Anne Arundel County Police Department. Department protocol placed Shoults on administrative suspension with pay immediately following that notification, the agency said. That suspension shifted to without pay once criminal arrest warrants were issued and served on Monday, the same day the department made its statement.
His suspension remains pending the disposition of the charges and the conclusion of a separate administrative investigation, the department said. Under Maryland police accountability rules, internal misconduct investigations operate parallel to or following active criminal court cases, since administrative discipline is legally distinct from criminal prosecution handled by state prosecutors.
The Charges and What They Carry
Under Maryland Code Criminal Law § 3-304, second-degree rape is a felony carrying a maximum penalty of up to 20 years in prison and applies when sexual acts occur without consent or when a victim is physically helpless or incapacitated, according to the Law Offices Of SRIS, P.C. Sex abuse of a minor, charged under § 3-602, is punishable by up to 25 years in prison, and a Tier III sex offense conviction would require mandatory lifetime inclusion on Maryland's sex offender registry, per the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services.
The case echoes a similar Anne Arundel County prosecution reported in May, when an Arnold resident was arrested and charged with second-degree rape after home security footage allegedly captured an assault of a sleeping victim in Annapolis, as detailed in Hoodline's earlier coverage of a home camera rape case. In November 2025, a Gambrills man was sentenced to 20 years in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court for second-degree rape of a minor, underscoring how the county's courts have handled comparable cases.
A Department Stretched Thin
Shoults served within the Bureau of Patrol, which in May adopted a 12-hour shift schedule across the department to address staffing shortages and improve coverage, according to Police1. Staffing records cited in that report showed 28 vacant sworn positions out of 811 authorized roles earlier this year. The Anne Arundel County Police Department, created by the Maryland State Legislature in 1937, has grown from 21 officers at its founding to more than 800 sworn personnel today, per Anne Arundel County Government.
Severna Park, where Shoults lives and where the alleged January abuse took place, is an unincorporated community along the Severn and Magothy Rivers roughly eight miles north of Annapolis, patrolled directly by the department's Eastern District. Survivors of sexual assault in the county can reach the YWCA of Annapolis & Anne Arundel County's 24-hour crisis hotline at 410-222-6800, which connects callers to emergency shelter, legal advocacy, and hospital accompaniment through its Arden House program, as Hoodline has previously reported in coverage of a separate downtown Annapolis assault case.
