By Chris Barge
Rocky Mountain News
March 24, 2007
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5439598,00.html
Fort Collins - Was it sexual assault or just hugging and horseplay?
In their closing arguments, defense lawyers for former Catholic priest Timothy Evans tried to convince a Larimer County jury Friday that the "physically demonstrative" man did not fondle a 17-year- old boy, as alleged.
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Former priest Timothy Evans walks out of the courtroom for a recess Tuesday at the Larimer County Justice Center. Evans, 43, is accused of fondling a 17-year-old boy on two occasions in 1999. The accuser, now 25, lives in Ohio. Photo by V. Richard Haro / Fort Collins Coloradoan |
Prosecutors countered that Evans was "a manipulative, scheming, deceptive man" who abused his ultimate position of trust to use the boy for his own sexual gratification.
Evans is the first Colorado Catholic priest to be tried since sweeping allegations of clergy abuse surfaced nationwide in 2002, leading to broad reforms within the church.
The arguments capped a- weeklong trial for Evans, 43, who is charged with two counts of sexual assault on a child by one in a position of trust.
Prosecutors allege that Evans pinned the boy while wrestling with him on his bed in the church rectory, then caressed him under his boxer shorts. They say on one other occasion he grabbed the boy's buttocks with both hands for 20 seconds while hugging him goodbye.
Evans allegedly committed the acts early in his tenure at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in Fort Collins, where he served from 1998 until the Archdiocese of Denver removed him in 2002. He had given the boy a part-time job at the church and the pair allegedly spent hours alone watching televised football games and talking about the boy's "inability to love."
During the trial this week, the alleged victim and three other male witnesses testified that Evans caressed them inappropriately. The alleged victim and two of the other witnesses were minors at the time.
"Their stories are eerily similar," Larimer County Deputy District Attorney Emily Humphrey said of the other witnesses.
Evans' attorney Joseph Gavaldon told the jurors that the other boys' claims had nothing to do with the current charges. He argued that the alleged incident on the bed in the rectory happened after the boy in question turned 18.
Mainly, he argued that the boy's feelings about two interactions with his priest changed in the 4 1/2 years that passed before he told anyone about them.
"The question is, 'How does a hug and horseplay get to a point where someone like (the victim) says it's a crime,' " Gavaldon said.
The defense also argued that the priest was not a person in a position of trust at the time of the alleged inappropriate contact. Evans was not acting in his capacity as a priest when the boy would hang out with him at the rectory, the defense said.
However, Judge Jolene C. Blair rejected a motion to acquit on those grounds.
The alleged victim, who is now 25 and living in Ohio, testified Tuesday that he waited so long because he was scared and confused.
The jury recessed for the weekend an hour after receiving the case and plans to take it back up for deliberation Monday morning.
Evans is set for trial April 2 in Jefferson County on a charge of sexual assault on a child by a person of trust in a pattern of abuse. That stems from an incident prosecutors say happened while he served at Arvada's Spirit of Christ parish from 1995 to 1997.
bargec@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5059
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