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	Testimony Begins in Priest's 2nd Sex-Assault Trial By Ann Schrader Denver Post April 3, 2007 http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_5586368 Golden — Prosecutors said Tuesday that a Catholic priest betrayed a devout family's trust by groping their teenage son a decade ago during counseling. Timothy Evans, 44, of Loveland is accused of sexual assault on a child by a person in a position of trust. He was indicted on the charges last August. Evans' attorney, Joseph Gavaldon, responded that the case was about "this terrible allegation" that didn't happen. The assault allegedly occurred between May 1995 and May 1997, when the son was about 16 years old and Evans was an assistant pastor at Spirit of Christ Catholic Community in Arvada. The teenager's family sent him to Evans, who said he could help the boy, who had begun questioning religious beliefs. The parents had wed in 1993, the first marriage officiated by Evans, who had been recently ordained, the boy's mother testified. Evans also had blessed their home, where he was invited to dinner. "We became good friends," she said. After the first counseling session, the son was upset and angry, but his parents made him return to another session, his father testified. The son was crying, and "begging us not to send him back," the father said after the second session in which the son said Evans rubbed his body and eventually his scrotum. "Father Tim went where he was not supposed to go," the mother said. "We didn't know what to do. We acted like it never happened." The family told no one, and continued with church activities, the mother said. Evans baptized their daughter. In 2003, the father said he talked with a person at a retreat who accused Evans of a similar sexual assault on another child. "I couldn't live with the fact anymore," the father testified. The alleged victim was to be on the stand most of Tuesday. Last week, a Larimer County jury convicted Evans on three counts of sexual assault of a child by a person in a position of trust for groping a 17-year-old boy in 1999. He could face 10 years in prison in that case. Staff writer Ann Schrader can be reached at 303-278-3217 or aschrader@denverpost.com.
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