photo by: Courtesy of the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas

Christopher Rossman

A Catholic priest who served in Baldwin City and nearby Lapeer has been charged in federal court with possessing child pornography.

The priest, Christopher Rossman, was charged July 9 in the U.S. District Court of Kansas. The charge alleges that Rossman in September 2016 possessed on an electronic device a sexually explicit depiction of a minor. Court documents indicate that if Rossman is convicted, he must forfeit a Samsung Galaxy tablet, which is alleged to have been used in a crime.

As previously reported by the Journal-World, Rossman was suspended by the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas after the archdiocese received a report — it did not say from where — that Rossman, then 44, had visited “inappropriate websites” that were “depicting minors.” The archdiocese reported the allegations to the FBI.

Rossman served at both Baldwin City’s Annunciation Church and the St. Francis of Assisi Church in Lapeer. The Lapeer church is southwest of Lawrence near Overbrook.

According to the Archdiocese website, Rossman was ordained on May 26, 2007. Since then he has held assignments in Olathe’s Prince of Peace, Topeka’s Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Holton’s St. Dominic, Mayetta’s St. Francis Xavier and the Potawatomi Reservation’s Our Lady of the Snows Oratory.

Rossman started working at Annunciation and St. Francis of Assisi on July 1, 2015.