Phillip Carden

Name:
Carden, Phillip Wendell

Date of Booking:
01/14/2026

Reason(s) For Booking:
Child Molestation

Officer’s Narrative:
[Please note: The following is a direct transcription from the official initial incident report. The Georgia Gazette does not fix any spelling or grammatical errors that may exist. Any changes or redactions made by our staff are placed inside brackets. Some errors may exist. All subjects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. The topics discussed may be sensitive to some readers. Discretion is advised.]

On Tuesday, January 12, 2026, at approximately 1116 hours, I was dispatched via phone to speak with [WITNESS #1] in reference to a sexual offense report.

[WITNESS #1] advised that earlier this morning she found a note written by her [REDACTED BY AGENCY] year-old daughter, [REDACTED BY AGENCY] The note stated that [REDACTED BY AGENCY] reported her brother-in-law, Phillip Carden, had touched her inappropriately this past weekend. [WITNESS #1] explained that [REDACTED BY AGENCY] and her younger brother, [REDACTED BY AGENCY] had stayed the night at their sister [REDACTED]’s house at [SINGLE DIGIT BLOCK] Morris St, Cartersville, GA. She said they don’t often spend the night there, and this was only the second time.

[WITNESS #1] advised she confronted [REDACTED BY AGENCY] about the note and [REDACTED BY AGENCY] said he touched her under her bra, in her panties, then touched her butt and her “front part”. Phillip then asked [REDACTED BY AGENCY] if she liked it and she said “stop, no” and he stopped and went back to bed. [REDACTED BY AGENCY] told [WITNESS #1] that she and Phillip had clothes on the entire time.

[WITNESS #1] said the incident happened in the living room where [REDACTED BY AGENCY] was sleeping. [REDACTED BY AGENCY] was also in the living room, sleeping on the couch. [WITNESS #1] explained that [REDACTED BY AGENCY] is autistic, sleeps with a blanket under his head, and would not have understood what was happening even if he had seen it. [REDACTED BY AGENCY] confirmed that [REDACTED BY AGENCY] was asleep with a blanket over his head at the time.

[WITNESS #1] also mentioned that there was a similar incident about two years ago. At that time, [REDACTED BY AGENCY] had said Phillip touched her, but [WITNESS #1] did not believe her because [REDACTED BY AGENCY] had a history of being untruthful, and based on questioning her, [WITNESS #1] didn’t think she was telling the truth.

[WITNESS #1] then stated that Phillip first admitted to the incident to his wife. He subsequently called [WITNESS #1] and admitted to what happened over the past weekend. According to [WITNESS #1], Phillip described the incident as if he had blacked out and did not remember much of what happened. He did, however, recall [REDACTED BY AGENCY] telling him to stop, and he stated that he did stop at that point. [WITNESS #1] said that Phillip was crying and apologized, saying he did not know why he did it and could not remember when the behavior started.

I contacted CID and made them aware of the situation. I also provided [WITNESS #1] with a case number and advised her to contact the Bartow County Sheriff’s Office with any questions.

[End of Narrative]