BishopAccountability.org
	Defrocked Priest from Rome Faces Sex Charges By R. Patrick Corbett Observer-Dispatch July 8, 2005 ROME - A Rome man who was stripped of his priestly authority four years ago after a sex scandal in the Bronx was arrested Thursday for allegedly asking a 15-year-old boy to pose for erotic photos in a Rome motel. Rome Police Inv. Ray Bolton arrested James Tamburrino, 38, of Pilmore Drive on a charge of attempted use of a child in a sexual performance, a felony. Rome City Court Judge Daniel Wilson arraigned Tamburrino and sent him to Oneida County jail on $20,000 bail. Bolton is assigned to the Oneida County Child Advocacy Center, which brought together Rome's Special Investigations Unit, the Oneida County District Attorney's office and the computer crime units of the Utica and state police to crack the case. "Those guys have been working around the clock," said Kevin Revere, law enforcement coordinator for the county program. Bolton said police found photographic and computer equipment and child pornography when they searched Tamburrino's vehicle and home and the motel where the erotic photos were to have been taken. Revere said a second youth has accused Tamburrino of a similar attempt and police believe there are more victims. "We anticipate more charges," he said. Tamburrino "is a definition of a predator," Revere said. He asked anyone who knows of Tamburrino having contact with a child to call the Child Advocacy Center at 732-3990 or Rome police at 339-7780. According to published reports and the Web site bishopaccountability.org, the Carmelite religious order paid to settle a civil suit charging Tamburrino and three other priests paid a 16-year-old boy who worked as a church secretary for sex between 1996 and 1998. According to the Times Herald Record newspaper in Middletown, the Carmelite order later said it defrocked Tamburrino because of the allegations made against him in the Bronx. Contact: pcorbett@utica.gannett.com
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