Accuser’s Parent Reacts to Carrier Verdict
Former Colorado Springs police officer Joshua Carrier is in jail, convicted Tuesday on a fraction of the counts against him in the case where 22 boys accused him of sexual misconduct.
Carrier, also a former wrestling coach at Horace Mann Middle School, was facing 207 criminal charges. He was found guilty of 21 of them, mostly on child pornography. He was acquitted of more than 30 charges, including some of the more serious sex crimes. But the jury deadlocked on more than 130 counts.
The families will go back to court, and some boys will have to testify again.
?We were saying thank God it’s over,? said Sarah Humphries, the parent of one of Carrier?s accusers. Her son, now 14 years old, attended Horace Mann Middle School when he was 12. He testified against Carrier, alleging that the man he once trusted, had touched him inappropriately.
?You’ve done your part,? Humphries told her son after he testified. ?The rest is up to the jury.?
?His first reaction was, ?ugh, I have to get up there and testify again.??
?We were surprised,? said Humphries. ?(We were) shocked that it (the jury) didn’t come back with better news. I?m kind of frustrated because now we get to go through the whole thing again.?
She was devastated to have to break the news to her son.
?I said, ?son they found him guilty on the child porn charges, but we have to go back to court over the charges against you and the rest of the kids.??
Humphries said it will be difficult because her son was ready to put it all behind him.
?If he over hears me say anything then he’ll run downstairs to his bedroom, shut the door and turn on the that he didn’t want to hear anything about it.
And she is concerned about her teenager?s future.
?I know that my son is going to have a hard time ever trusting anybody, especially police officers, which is not where you want your kids to be in life. You want them to know that police officers are who you go to when you know there’s trouble.?
But Humphries said her son will testify again.
?We did talk about the fact that when something happens to you that’ wrong, you do need to stand up and let people know that it happened, so that justice can be served,? said Humphries.
On May 1 Humphries will find out more about when the next criminal trial will be held. It is very likely there will be a trial as part of a civil suit.
