COLORADO
Gazette
By Lance Benzel Published: June 28, 2013
On a curio table in a Colorado Springs priest’s rectory sat a framed picture of the boy he is now accused of molesting, smartly dressed in a crisp uniform worn for one of his extracurricular activities.
It was among images found during a police sweep of the Rev. Charles Robert “Bob” Manning’s home that captured detectives’ attention.
A Colorado Springs police investigator testifying Friday at the now-retired priest’s ongoing sexual assault trial said a computer removed from Manning’s home contained a picture of “a younger male” with his shorts and underwear pulled down and his penis exposed. According to detective Nicholas Kundert, who described the image, the shot appeared to have been taken from inside Manning’s rectory.
Manning, 78, formerly the pastor at St. Gabriel the Archangel Catholic Church in Colorado Springs, has pleaded not guilty to charges that he used booze, pot and gifts to coerce sex from a then-15-year-old altar boy.
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