Montana Catholic Priest Accused of Possessing Child Pornography

By Bridgette P. LaVictoire
Lez Get Real
March 21, 2012

http://lezgetreal.com/2012/03/montana-catholic-priest-accused-of-possessing-child-pornography/

Father Rudolph Carl Bullman, 67, is a priest at Risen Christ Parish in Kalispell has been charged with felony sexual abuse of children stemming from his alleged possession of digital images of nude boys on his computer. He was arraigned in Flathead County District Court in Montana. He has been out of jail on his own recognizance and on administrative leave from the Church since 16 November.

He was put on administrative leave as soon as the Roman Catholic Diocese of Helena first learned of the investigation. Diocese spokeswoman Renee St. Martin Wizeman stated “We were made aware of an investigation by the Flathead County Attorney’s Office and at that time he was placed on administrative leave, which is what our policies and procedures call for.”

Bullman apparently has been living in a non-ministerial setting off of parish housing. She stated “We have cooperated fully with the investigation. We will see what happens going forward, but it is important to emphasize that we do have policies in place specifically for these matters.”

The investigation began when in October 2011 when a “woman called authorities to report that a Nintendo DS game console she’d purchased from Bullman contained photos of nude and underage boys.”

On 16 December, a detective with the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office interviewed Bullman. Apparently, he admitted to viewing gay pornography, but said that he only ever accessed websites that clearly stated that the men in the photos were over the age of 18. Bullman has said that he also viewed pornography on his computer, and agreed to let the detective search the machine. The search revealed images of young males between 12 and 18 in various states of sex or nudity.

According to one report “When the images appeared on the computer, Bullman allegedly said, ‘well those aren’t adults,’ records state. He told the detective that child pornography occasionally appears on his computer during searches of other websites, but he denied searching for or viewing child pornography.” Further investigation discovered 23 images of child pornography stored in the Internet cache file with another 23 that had been deleted.