Staff report

Updated with information about McCray’s arrest.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Linda Ann Lee, 51, and James William McCray, 45, were arrested yesterday on charges related to the sexual abuse of a child.

A Gainesville Police Department (GPD) officer reported that McCray showed his genitals to the child twice in July and told the child to be quiet. The child reported to witnesses that Lee was told about the incidents but didn’t do anything about it. The witnesses reported that they confronted McCray in the parking lot of the residence and then called the police and took the child with them.

During a forensic interview with the Child Protection Team, the middle-school-aged child reportedly said McCray pulled down his pants and displayed his buttocks and then his genitals; the child described a specific detail about the genitals. The child said that after Lee was told about the incident, she reportedly called McCray into a room and then went to sleep; the child did not feel safe and texted one of the witnesses.

A medical assessment of the victim reportedly produced positive findings for failure to protect, dental and medical neglect, and mental injury. The interview also produced positive findings that McCray sexually exploited the child and used illegal substances.

Lee was interviewed at GPD Headquarters on August 20; post Miranda, she reportedly said the child had told her that McCray had displayed his genitals, but she asked McCray about it and he denied it, so she believed him. Lee reportedly said she had known McCray a long time and he wouldn’t do anything like that. She reportedly confirmed the specific detail about McCray’s genitals that was reported by the child. She said she didn’t believe the child and that there was nothing to report because nothing happened.

When an officer reminded Lee that the child had accurately described the specific detail about McCray’s genitals, Lee reportedly “stayed quiet for a moment and stated that the [child] possibly saw a picture of [McCray’s] genitals in her phone.” Lee reportedly said she hadn’t taken the child to a medical appointment for about a year because she lost the child’s medical card and didn’t have any means of transportation. When the officer asked about her car, Lee reportedly said she got the car three or four months ago.

The officer also noted that Alachua County Sheriff’s Office filed an incident report in 2023 that said Lee and the child were present when a female showed her genitals to a group of children in Majestic Oaks; Lee reportedly said she didn’t recall anything about the exposure of genitals in that incident, but when the officer said a deputy reported that Lee had said at the time that she knew about the incident but didn’t want to file charges against the female, Lee reportedly “turned hesitant” and said she didn’t remember.

Lee has been charged with failing to report suspected child abuse and child neglect without great bodily harm. She has three misdemeanor convictions (one violent) and was arrested in 2019 for domestic battery, but the charge was later dropped. Judge Jonathan Ramsey set bail at $25,000.

McCray has been charged with lewd/lascivious exhibition with a victim under the age of 16, false imprisonment, two counts of aggravated stalking, and resisting an officer without violence. He was just arrested this afternoon, so we do not yet have his arrest report.

Articles about arrests are based on reports from law enforcement agencies. The charges listed are taken from the arrest report and/or court records and are only accusations. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.