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  One-Time Foster Dad Indicted in Child-Porn Exchange
The Man, 72, Who Faces a Trial in Two Boys' Rapes, Is Accused of Receiving and Sending Graphic Images

By Howard Pankratz
Denver Post [Denver CO]
March 7, 2006

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_3576076

A former foster parent and one-time Episcopal priest suspected by Denver authorities of molesting young boys for five decades has been indicted on charges of distributing and receiving child pornography.

Donald George Shissler, 72, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Denver last week. The indictment was unsealed Monday.

The indictment alleges that in June, July and August of 2001 and in February 2002, Shissler used his computer to transmit "graphic images of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct."

During seven months in 2001, Shissler received child pornography over his computer, according to the indictment. The porn showed graphic images of minors engaged in sex, the indictment said.

In October 2002, Shissler was given a prison term of 24 years to life after pleading guilty to raping two boys, ages 10 and 11, in the summer of 2001. But in October, Denver District Judge Sheila Rappaport, who had imposed the original sentence, threw out the convictions, saying Shissler had received inadequate legal representation.

The Denver district attorney's office has decided to take the cases involving the two boys to trial.

They also have filed another case against Shissler, alleging that he molested a boy now 14 more than 100 times when the boy was between the ages of 6 and 11.

Shissler faces 16 counts of distribution and receipt of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography.

He was a foster parent from 1985 to 1992 in Denver, but his license was revoked after he repeatedly was caught dressing inappropriately, according to a spokeswoman for Denver's Department of Human Services

For a short time 40 years ago, Shissler was an Episcopal priest in Aspen. He has denied being a child molester, saying he has too much love to harm children.

Shissler had posted a $200,000 bond in January on the sexual assault charges and was released from the Denver County Jail. He was arrested again on the pornography charges this month and is in federal custody.

Staff writer Howard Pankratz can be reached at 303-820-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com.

 
 

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