Retiree Pleads Innocent to Sex Counts With Girl
A retired state Department of Transportation supervisor pleaded innocent Wednesday to 52 sex charges, mostly involving a 15-year-old girl. Colby Watson Flaherty, 66, who lives in the Loma Portal area, was ordered held in the downtown County Jail in lieu of $200,000 bail.
Flaherty is charged with 39 counts of exploiting a child by taking lewd photographs of her, five counts of oral copulation with a minor, five counts of penetration with a foreign object and three charges of performing a lewd act with a minor.
He was arrested Friday at his home, where San Diego Police Department detectives confiscated 12 boxes of X-rated materials. Deputy Dist. Atty. Harry Elias said some nude photographs date to 1970; he said charges involving many of those pictures cannot be filed because the statute of limitations has expired.
Flaherty’s attorney, John Thomas, told Municipal Judge Nicholas Kasimatis that his client has no record and has lived in the county 22 years. Thomas unsuccessfully argued that bail should be set at $75,000, saying Flaherty would not flee.
But Elias, citing the number of old photographs, told the judge that Flaherty has “a history of criminal violations for 18 years.”
Kasimatis scheduled a bail review for Monday. Flaherty’s preliminary hearing will be Aug. 17.
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