ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — A former church volunteer on Tuesday was sentenced to 50 years in prison after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting teenage boys at his Englewood apartment.
Joseph Potts, 33, pleaded guilty to two Class 3 felonies for sexual exploitation of a child and first-degree assault, according to the 18th Judicial District Attorney's Office.
As part of the plea agreement, other counts were dismissed, the district attorney's office said.
“There is likely a special place in hell for those who satisfy their lascivious sexual desires under the guise of being a youth [volunteer],” said District Attorney George Brauchler. “We can, at best, protect ourselves from him in this life. His true sentence awaits him in the next.”
Authorities said the incidents happened in 2017 when Potts was a youth church volunteer at Jubilee Fellowship Church. Potts would become friends with teenagers and invite them to stay overnight at his apartment to play video games, which is where the sexual assaults would take place, the DA said.
"He used a religious position of leadership in order to gain the trust of parents so that he had access to their children," said Senior Deputy District Attorney Danielle Jaramillo, who prosecuted the case. "These parents trusted that their children would be safe when alone with the defendant, and he took advantage of that trust in the worst way.”
Potts must also register as a sex offender.
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