A former sergeant with the Ocean City Police Department pleaded guilty Thursday to endangering the welfare of a child stemming from a sexual relationship he had with a girl beginning when she was a teenager, the Cape May County Prosecutor’s Office announced.
Tyrone Rolls, 51, of Marmora, initially was charged in April 2021 and then indicted last November as a result of an investigation conducted by the Special Victims Unit in the Prosecutor’s Office.
He was originally charged with aggravated sexual assault, sexual assault, endangering the welfare of a child, aggravated assault of a domestic violence victim and two counts of official misconduct.
He pleaded guilty to a second-degree charge of endangering the welfare of a child. He faces a minimum five-year term in state prison.
Rolls, who was known as a coach and mentor in the community, began working for the Ocean City Police Department in 1996.
In 2020, Rolls was instrumental in keeping marchers calm during a Black Lives Matter protest in Ocean City following the national outcry over the murder of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, during an arrest.
Rolls’ relationship with the girl began in 2016 before the start of her sophomore year at Ocean City High School, the Prosecutor’s Office previously disclosed in an affidavit of probable cause.
The sexual encounters allegedly occurred at Rolls’ home and in his patrol vehicle and began when the girl was 15. The victim came forward in 2021 and provided a statement to police about the sexual abuse, authorities said.
After his prison term, Rolls will have to register as a Megan’s Law sex offender, including parole supervision for life, Cape May County Prosecutor Jeffrey Sutherland said.
Rolls also will be barred from having contact with the victim and will forfeit all future public employment.
He is scheduled to be sentenced on May 19.
Sutherland thanked all of the detectives involved in the investigation of the case as well as Senior Assistant Prosecutor Bryna Batton, who handled Rolls’ prosecution.
