Priest on trial again on sex assault charges

Sue Lindsay, Rocky Mountain News

Published April 3, 2007 at midnight

Text size

More Local News

A Catholic priest went on trial today for the second time in a month on charges of sexually assaulting a young boy.

Timothy Evans, 43, is charged with fondling a 17-year-old boy who went to him for counseling in 1996 while he was a priest at Sprit of Christ Community Church in Arvada. Evans was convicted last week on similar charges involving another youth he was counseling at a church in Fort Collins.

The boy, who came from a devout Catholic family, was sent to Evans by his parents for counseling after their son saw a movie on witchcraft and became interested in pagan religions.

"Timothy Evans broke that trust. He touched that boy in a way a 16 or 17-year-old boy should never be touched by a person in a position of trust,"

said prosecutor Zach Phillips.

Evans’ defense attorney, Joseph Gabaldon, contends that the fondling didn’t take place.

Even after the alleged fondling incident, Gabaldon said, the family continued to attend the church, and the parents had Evans baptize their daughter.

The boy’s mother said the family "wanted to act like it never happened. We didn’t know what to do. We tried to suppress it. It was very, very hard for us. We were very active in our parish and we didn’t want anybody to know. It’s very hard. It’s our son, but it’s our parish. We’re very torn."

Subscribe to the Rocky Mountain News