COLORADO
The Gazette
Published: June 24, 2013
By LANCE BENZEL lance.benzel@gazette.com –
During private encounters away from church, a Colorado Springs priest allegedly lavished attention on a 15-year-old altar boy – showering him with gifts and supplying him with booze, pot and cigarettes.
But according to the Rev. Charles Robert Manning’s one-time assistant, all that attention came with a price.
“He told me there were three things he wanted to do before he died: To kiss me, to see me naked and to have sex with me,” the former altar boy, now 18, told a jury Monday in recounting an alcohol-fueled day in the fall of 2011 in which he said Manning, 78, crossed all three wishes from his list.
Formerly a pastor at St. Gabriel the Archangel Catholic Church, 8755 Scarborough Drive in Colorado Springs, Manning has pleaded not guilty to sexual assault on a child by one in a position of trust and several related counts, some alleging he supplied the boy with drugs and alcohol.
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