Sex offender, 80, arrested near day care
An 80-year-old registered sex offender was arrested as he watched children play at a day-care center in Cherokee County.
James Garfield Grant of Canton had parked in a McDonald's on Highway 140, near the day-care center in Hickory Flat. Deputies arrested him after receiving a report of a suspicious person at that location. The incident happened a week ago.
Grant was charged with two counts of failure to register as a sex offender and loitering within 1,000 feet of a day-care center. He also had two outstanding warrants for felony theft out of Cherokee and Fannin counties, the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office said.
Grant has a 1997 conviction in Delaware for second-degree unlawful sexual contact. He is being held in the Cherokee County Jail on a $50,000 bond.
