A Florida man has pleaded guilty to molesting a 3-year-old girl in Hall County, according to court documents.
Joseph Scott Pemberton, 47, of Sarasota, Florida, entered a negotiated guilty plea Feb. 16 on three counts of child molestation. He was sentenced by Superior Court Judge Bonnie Oliver to 20 years with the first seven years to serve in prison and the remainder on probation. In addition, Oliver banished Pemberton from the state of Florida during the course of his sentence.
Oliver granted Pemberton credit for time served since July 2022.
Pemberton was transported to the Hall County Jail in August. Hall County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman B.J. Williams said Pemberton walked into the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office in May and “reported he had molested a child when he lived in Hall County in 2008.”
Though he was originally charged with rape, the charge was amended to attempted rape after a Magistrate Court hearing.
Investigator Michael Alford testified at that hearing about two incidents including one at the Gainesville Walmart.
“He got in the backseat of the car while they were in the parking lot at the Gainesville Walmart and he stated that he tried to rape her again,” Alford said at the hearing.
Pemberton was then indicted in November on two counts of attempted rape and one count of child molestation from this case.
The attempted rape charges were reduced to child molestation in the plea.
Oliver also recommended as part of the sentence that Pemberton enter into a Department of Community Supervision transition center once he has finished his prison sentence.
Pemberton will face the special sex offender conditions of probation.
Defense attorney Kyle Denslow declined to comment.