By Jaryd Wilson
Colorado Connection
April 14, 2011
http://www.coloradoconnection.com/news/story.aspx?id=605023
[with video]
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COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. -- Colorado Springs Police officers have arrested a man who allegedly sexually assaulted a girl for nearly three years while volunteering at Springs Community Church in the city.
"We continue to be saddened by the investigation and circumstances," Ross Harrop, Executive Pastor for Springs Community Church, said.
Police said the girl was 16 years old when 37-year-old Eric Caverly allegedly began sexually assaulting her. Caverly was a youth leader to the middle school ministry from the late 1990s through 2008 at the church. According to an arrest affidavit the church is where he first met the girl. He formed a friendship with the victim, and she frequently spent the night at the Caverly home. Caverly and the victim started "fooling around" when she was 16. Documents state he would take her hand and place it in his pants. Caverly and the teen first had sex when she was 17 years old.
"But when you talk about an underaged person having sexual contact with somebody over the age of 18, it has to be in a circumstance where there is no position of trust," Sgt. Darrin Abbink with the Colorado Springs Police Department said. "Position of trust is defined as somebody who's responsible for the health, safety and well-being of an underaged person."
The arrest is the result of a sexual assault report taken back in December, three years after the first assaults allegedly began.
Springs Community Church has cooperated with police investigations, and officers have informed members of the congregation of the situation against Caverly. Officers said as of now there are no additional victims, but they want to make sure potential victims can report the abuse without being publicly identified.
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