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	Priest Facing Charges Suspended By Janice Morse Cincinnati Enquirer July 25, 2007 http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070725/NEWS01/707250403/1056/COL02 Glendale - A 63-year-old Episcopal priest is being temporarily barred from his official duties while he faces charges including public indecency and drunken driving. The suspension of Robert A. Hufford, chaplain to the Convent of the Transfiguration, takes effect as soon as he receives it, said Richelle Thompson, spokeswoman for the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Ohio in Cincinnati. Hufford's lawyer, Brad Kraemer, declined to comment Tuesday except to say his client has pleaded not guilty to the four charges against him: failure to drive within marked lanes, operating a vehicle while impaired, public indecency and abusing harmful intoxicants. Hufford is set to appear in Butler County Area II Court in Hamilton on Sept. 5. The Episcopal Diocese's action against Hufford, ordered Tuesday by Bishop Tom Breidenthal, follows Hufford's arrest July 14 in Butler County's Liberty Township. Around 4:15 a.m., a caller said that a man was masturbating in front of his vehicle at the rest area off Interstate 75 near Ohio 63. An Ohio State Highway Patrol trooper stopped a vehicle Hufford was driving because it matched the description provided by the complainant. Hufford admitted he had been to the rest area, but he told the trooper that he had been urinating, not masturbating, the report says. The trooper said he spotted two bottles inside the vehicle, and that Hufford identified them as amyl nitrite, an inhalant that can be used to produce a brief feeling of euphoria. Hufford failed field-sobriety tests, a report says, and his breath test for alcohol registered 0.10, above Ohio's 0.08 legal limit for driving. Hufford was released to the custody of a friend. Contact: Janice Morse jmorse@enquirer.com
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