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  Jury Will Decide Priest's Guilt

By Victoria A.F. Camron
Longmont Times-Call
December 18, 2007

http://www.timescall.com/news_story.asp?ID=5275

GREELEY — A Catholic priest accused of jogging naked before dawn will ask a jury to decide his guilt on a misdemeanor charge of indecent exposure.

On Tuesday afternoon, the Rev. Robert Whipkey's attorney, Matt Giacomini, entered a not guilty plea and requested a jury trial for his client. If he is convicted, Whipkey might have to register as a sex offender.

Whipkey, who was wearing a suit with an open-collared shirt, did not speak during the hearing. He and his attorneys, Giacomini and Doug Tisdale, would not comment as they left the courtroom or the courthouse.

The trial is scheduled for March 25 and 26, but Whipkey is scheduled to appear in court Jan. 31 for a motions hearing and on March 7 for a pretrial conference.

An off-duty Frederick Police officer who had just arrived home after work saw Whipkey walking nude on Fifth Street at about 4:30 a.m. June 22, police said. Whipkey was walking home after jogging at Frederick High School, according to police.

The priest told police he was jogging nude because wearing clothes makes him sweat profusely.

Prosecutor Kent Leier told Weld County Judge Michele Meyer that his office had not yet received Whipkey's personnel records from the archdiocese, which is under a court order to produce those records by the end of business today.

"The day is not over," Tisdale said before he criticized the prosecutor for raising the issue during his client's arraignment.

In August, the archdiocese said it investigated Whipkey for "inappropriate personal behavior" eight years ago, while he was assigned to a parish in Sterling. Charges in that matter were not filed, according to the archdiocese.

 
 

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