By Shaun Boyd
CBS 4
August 9, 2007
http://cbs4denver.com/seenon/local_story_220112725.html
(AP) FREDERICK, Colo. A Catholic priest faces an indecent exposure charge after police said he went jogging in the nude about an hour before sunrise.
The Rev. Robert Whipkey told officers he had been running naked at a high school track and didn't think anyone would be around at that time of day, a police report said.
He told officers he sweats profusely if he wears clothing while jogging. "I know what I did was wrong," he said in the report.
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Whipkey did not return phone messages. His attorney, Doug Tisdale, told the Longmont Times-Call that Whipkey had no comment.
Whipkey was placed on administrative leave by the Archdiocese of Denver Wednesday night.
The archdiocese's Vicar of the Clergy Bernard Schmitz announced Whipkey's leave at a meeting with parish workers and lay leaders in Frederick, Jeanette De Melo, spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of Denver, told the Rocky Mountain News.
The archdiocese was not notified about Whipkey's indecent exposure allegation until a week after the incident in the Weld County town about 20 miles north of Denver, De Melo said.
Whipkey, 53, was arrested June 22. An officer said he saw a naked man walking down the street at 4:35 a.m. The U.S. Naval Observatory Web site said sunrise that day in Frederick was 5:31 a.m.
The officer said when he shined his flashlight at the man, he covered himself with a piece of clothing he was carrying.
Whipkey also officiated at parishes in the nearby towns of Mead and Erie.
If convicted of indecent exposure, a misdemeanor, he would have to register as a sex offender, prosecutors said.
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