Carol Allen, center, with (clockwise from left corner) Teresa Millard, Willis Allen Jr., Ryan Roach and Vincent Allen.
An elderly Cape May County woman accused of allowing the sexual assault of a kindergartener she was charged with protecting is now in prison, along with her son who abused the girl.
Carol Allen, now 83, has been in and out of jail since she was first charged in 2020, after various violations of her release.
She was ordered held in September, after she allegedly befriended people with children and grandchildren through her church, and then encouraged them to come to her home for playdates, even though she was barred from having minors there.
She is in the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility, where she was transferred July 10, after pleading guilty last month to second-degree endangering the welfare of a child.
She was sentenced to three years in prison. Her maximum release date is June 3, 2027, although it is unlikely she will serve time beyond her parole date of Nov. 17.
Allen was supposed to be overseer for Teresa Millard, as the result of a Division of Child Protection and Permanency case.
Instead, the girl was sexually assaulted by Allen's son and another man, Ryan Roach, in a barn on the Allen family's Dennis Township blueberry farm, while Millard acted as lookout via walkie-talkie, according to the original charges.
The investigation into the sexual assault of the then-5-year-old girl led to charges against Millard, and allegations that the Allen Family Farm — a once-popular spot for people to come and pick blueberries — was a place that hid child sexual abuse dating to 2001.
"What happens in this house, stays in this house," Carol Allen allegedly told a boy who disclosed to school officials years ago that he had been assaulted inside the house.
The crimes came to light after Roach told a fellow inmate at the Cape May County Correctional Facility about it while he was there on first-degree aggravated sexual assault and third-degree endangering charges related to earlier abuse of the little girl when she was just 3, and her mother and Roach lived together.
The unnamed inmate reached out to detectives, sparking the charges against Roach and one of Allen's sons, Willis Allen Jr.
Roach, now 35, is in South Woods State Prison serving a seven-year sentence for sexual assault of a child younger than 12. He must serve at least 85 percent — or five years, 11 months and 16 days — under the No Early Release Act. He is eligible for parole March 24, 2026.
Willis Allen Jr., now 34, is in custody of the Department of Corrections, where he is awaiting prison placement. He was sentenced to three years in prison for endangering the welfare of a child and is eligible for parole next June 25.
Vincent Allen, another of Carol's sons, was charged with 20 counts related to the assaults. He was arrested in 2020, and quickly released to an in-patient program, according to information released in court at the time. But it was not clear what kind of program it was or when he was released.
At that time, it was also indicated that the decades-old case may be weak.
Last year, Vincent Allen pleaded guilty to a disorderly persons charge of harassment, which carried no jail time.
Millard is currently free after serving nearly five years in the Cape May County Correctional Facility before her sentencing.
Rather than sentence her to prison — which would have led to her almost-immediate release due to her time served — the judge suspended her five-year sentence, which means she could face incarceration if she violates the terms of that sentence.
