I've been a newspaper reporter for 17 years and there is very little that shocks me anymore.
On Monday, I heard the news that former Monument Academy boys' basketball coach Greg Burr was charged with 39 criminal counts ranging from sexual assault on a child by a person in position of trust to child abuse and obscenity.
The most unsettling part for me is not whether the charges are true, but how they came about in the first place. I interviewed Burr and his wife, Sharalee, in their home last January and felt comfortable around both of them. In fact, I took the photograph of them that ran in The Gazette on Tuesday morning.
It is not my place to say whether the charges against Burr will stand up in a court of law. The evidence will bear that out. However, where there is smoke there usually is fire. District attorneys are notorious for over-charging cases, but it is hard to imagine that the players on Burr's team would come up with a series of lies just to get their coach in trouble. There must be some truth in all of this.
Burr appeared to be forthright in his interview with me when he said he had problems with alcohol and drugs when he was in high school and college. He said that he felt the world owed him a lot when he was younger.
He also told me how he came to know Jesus Christ as his personal savior. Burr moved to Colorado from Kansas three years ago to work as a youth pastor at a church in the Denver area. He left that position, he said, to become a basketball coach and work on his teaching credential.
Sharalee is a pastor's daughter. She met her husband at Sterling College in Kansas and was turned off by his self-absorption. She eventually saw changes in him and agreed to be his wife.
Last month, Sharalee was fired as athletic director at Monument Academy.
There are many people who will read this article and think that Christians are the biggest frauds in the world. On Nov. 1, New Life Church founder and senior pastor Ted Haggard was exposed for his admitted indiscretions with a gay escort and possible drug use. I was at New Life Church the night before the news broke for a Halloween celebration. I never would have guessed that the pastor who headed one of the largest churches in the nation was its biggest deceiver.
Haggard became the brunt of jokes and was fired by the church. But despite his downfalls, he has the chance to make a better life for himself and his family. Only he can choose to clean up his life and be a man of integrity.
Burr will be judged in a court of law. Whether he goes to prison, gets probation, or the charges against him are dropped, he has the chance to face his demons, and possibly his accusers, and make a better life for himself. My hope is that he chooses to become the best person he can be. I also hope that the players on his team do not have to face demons of their own the rest of their lives.
As a reporter, I do my best to check the facts and give people the benefit of the doubt that they are being honest with me. It is not my job to ask what may or may not be going on in their personal life. In Burr's case, his personal and professional life may be filled with demons.