A Beaverton, Ore., police officer accused of raping a 5-year-old child will be allowed to have children at his wedding.
Christopher R. Warren, 33, of Vancouver will marry former high school classmate Meliah Colon on Aug. 3 at Camas Meadows Golf Course, according to court documents filed in Clark County Superior Court.
After his arrest in May on suspicion of first-degree child rape, Judge Barbara Johnson prohibited Warren from having contact with minors.
“This has caused us to tell everyone attending the wedding that no kids can attend …” Warren wrote in a court motion heard Wednesday. “This includes our own kids, who were all supposed to be participants in the wedding.”
Warren also asked Johnson to allow him to have contact with his two children after the wedding.
Before he was accused of raping a child, he said that he, Colon and their respective children from previous relationships “lived together as a happy family” in Vancouver, and “all of our kids have attended school together.”
Deputy Prosecutor Randy St. Clair, standing in for Senior Deputy Prosecutor Alan Harvey, objected to Warren’s request, Harvey said.
Johnson granted Warren’s motion to socialize with children at his wedding but did not modify the order of no contact with minors, with the exception of the wedding, Harvey said.
An estimated 120 adults are expected to attend the wedding, Warren indicated.
Warren’s trial is scheduled for Dec. 16 but is likely to be delayed until February because of scheduling conflicts, his attorneys, Louis Byrd Jr. and Ernest Warren Jr., have said.
Warren and Colon dated 15 years ago in high school and reconnected more than two years ago, Warren wrote in his motion.
He remains on paid administrative leave from his police job. He was temporarily relieved from duty in April, when he was arrested in Washington County, Ore., on suspicion of misusing food stamps.
A probable cause affidavit filed in court indicates that Vancouver police received a report that Warren had fondled the five-year-old’s genital area during a bath. In a May 14 interview at Clark County Children’s Justice Center, the child said that Warren also had penetrated the child’s private parts with a pencil, the court records state.
This isn’t the first time the officer has been accused of such a crime, according to published reports.
Warren was put on paid leave in 2010 while Multnomah County and Washington County authorities investigated allegations that he failed to report suspected child abuse about six years ago involving a friend, The Oregonian reported. The friend, Sugar Ray Black, was convicted earlier in 2010 of sexually abusing three other girls who were 14 or younger.
That same year, the Multnomah County District Attorney’s office also investigated separate claims that Warren had molested a minor girl when he was 17, according to the newspaper. Oregon prosecutors did not charge Warren with a crime because the victim declined to cooperate, the newspaper reported.
Paris Achen: 360-735-4551; http://twitter.com/Col_Courts; http://facebook.com/ColTrends; paris.achen@columbian.com.
