Robert Henry Gordon (El Paso County Sheriff's Office)
A 58-year-old church music teacher and former school bus driver in Colorado was arrested for the alleged sexual abuse a 14-year-old boy.
Robert Henry Gordon was taken into custody Thursday and charged with one count each of sexual assault on a child by a person in a position of trust, sexual assault on a child, unlawful sexual contact, and enticement of a child, authorities announced.
The arrest happened just days after law enforcement was notified. According to a press release from the El Paso County Sheriff's Office, the investigation into Gordon began on April 10. Authorities say that the parents of the 14-year-old alleged victim were going through their son's cellphone when they came across "inappropriate text messages between their child and the suspect."
The parents immediately contacted the sheriff's office, which sent a patrol deputy to take down the initial report. That report was forwarded to detectives with the EPCSO's Special Victim's Unit, which conducted its own investigation into the allegations, including having the alleged victim sit down for a forensic interview regarding his contacts with Gordon.
SVU detectives placed Gordon under arrest Thursday morning and transported him to the sheriff's office, where he was interviewed about the allegations. Following the interview, Gordon was booked into the El Paso County Jail on the charges.
Detectives said that Gordon is a music teacher at the First United Pentecostal Church in Colorado Springs. The press release noted that Gordon has previously worked as a school bus driver and was employed by several different school districts in the El Paso County area.
According to a report from the Gazette, a local news website, Gordon has previously faced similar child sex abuse charges on several occasions in the county, some dating back more than two decades.
While working as a school bus driver in 2001, Gordon was reportedly charged with two counts of sexual assault on a child with force and one count of sexual assault on a child by a person in a position of trust. The alleged victim in the case claimed that Gordon had illegal sexual contact with him "quite a few" times in 1996 when he was 12 or 13 years old, the Gazette reported.
A jury in 2001 acquitted Gordon on all three charges.
In August 2011, a victim came forward and claimed that he was 12 years old when he met Gordon at a Security-Widefield church in 2001 and was repeatedly sexually abused by him. Following a yearlong investigation into the allegations, prosecutors reportedly charged Gordon with one count each of sexual assault on a child with pattern of sexual abuse and pattern of sexual assault on a child in a position of trust, as well as six counts of sexual assault on a child by a person in a position of trust with a victim under the age of 15.
Per the Gazette, prosecutors dropped half of the charges against Gordon prior to his trial, in which a jury acquitted him in 2014 on the remaining four counts.
Gordon is currently being held without bond and is scheduled to appear in court Friday afternoon.
The sheriff's office emphasized that the investigation into Gordon remains ongoing and urged anyone with any information relevant to the case to contact the EPCSO tip line at 719-520-7777.
It was not immediately clear whether Gordon had an attorney who could be reached for comment. The First United Pentecostal Church did not immediately respond to a message from Law&Crime regarding Gordon's employment history and the latest allegations he faces.