The trial for Joshua Carrier, a 31-year-old former Colorado Springs police officer and volunteer wrestling coach at Horace Mann Middle School who is accused of molesting 22 boys and faces 207 counts of child exploitation, child sexual assault and possessing child pornography, began on Monday.
According to the Colorado Springs Gazette, the jury watched video of the ex-cop performing physical examinations on boys in his office, some of whom he touched on the genitals, recorded with a web camera.
In the video, Carrier is seen adjusting the camera and then examining several boys. Some of the boys strip down to their underwear while others removed all their clothing. Carrier can be seen touching the boys' skin, and according to KRDO, at least one child's naked genital area.
The defense argued that Carrier was simply performing his duties as wrestling coach, checking for skin diseases, like ringworm, that wrestlers are prone to become infected by.
Carrier's trial is on-going and is expected to last one month.
In May of 2011, Carrier was arrested for buying child pornography and then re-arrested a week later on suspicion of sexually assaulting several children. Before his arrest, Carrier was already the subject of an internal affairs review for showing his gun at a middle school sporting event (Carrier had been employed as a school resource officer and wrestling coach at Horace Mann Middle School in Colorado Springs prior to allegations of sex assault).
The Gazette spoke with an alleged victim's parent who said that when Carrier was working at Horace Mann as a wrestling coach he sexually abused her son under the pretense of examining the young boy for ringworm, a common wrestler illness.
Back in May, when Carrier was initially arrested, a Horace Mann student on the wrestling team made an anonymous statement to a CBS4 affiliate in Colorado Springs that Carrier placed his hands on student wrestler's bodies frequently when checking for ringworm:
He would actually take us into his own office one by one and touch us and look at us and stuff.
7News reported that Carrier had several assignments that placed him in situations with youth including a school resource officer at Horace Mann Elementary where he also served has wrestling coach, a coach for the Police Athletic League, and as an advisor to youth in the Explorer Scout Program.
Carrier worked for the Colorado Springs Police Department for seven years before he resigned in June 2011 amidst the assault and child pornography allegations. If convicted of the charges, Carrier faces life in prison.
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