An Aurora police officer accused of having a runaway girl use his phone to photograph herself naked has been charged with sexual exploitation of a child.
Michael Mangino, 50, turned himself in to the Adams County Sheriff’s Office on Monday morning and was released after posting $20,000 bond, said Aurora police Sgt. Cassidee Carlson.
Mangino, named the 2010 Humanitarian of the Year by the Aurora Chamber of Commerce, has been placed on leave without pay.
He faces two counts of felony exploitation of a child, one count of felony contributing to the delinquency of a minor, and a misdemeanor charge of official misconduct.
Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates said the arrest is related to a March 9 incident, when Mangino had contact with the 15-year-old girl during a welfare check.
According to the arrest affidavit, the girl admitted she had smoked pot four hours earlier, and so she needed to be medically cleared before she could be taken to the Arapahoe County Juvenile Assessment Center.
According to statements from two investigators, while Mangino was driving the girl to Children’s Hospital in Aurora for a urine analysis, he told her that he had begun taking photographs of all of the people he arrested and that he needed pictures of her naked body.
The girl told police that while they were waiting at the hospital, he urged her to take his password-protected Droid phone into the restroom, where she disrobed and photographed her own face and body. She then returned the phone to him, she said.
Investigators found sexually explicit photos of the girl on Mangino’s personal phone.
Oates said that during the investigation, police found other video images on Mangino’s phone that showed him having sexual contact with several adult females while wearing his police uniform.
“This is a pretty sad and dark day for the Aurora Police Department,” Oates said at a news conference.
The phone also allegedly contained a video image focusing on a female child’s rear end, the affidavit said. Oates said the image appears to have been taken surreptitiously in a classroom where Mangino was working as a D.A.R.E. officer.
A 29-year veteran of the Aurora Police Department, Mangino has worked in several elementary schools as a D.A.R.E., or Drug Abuse Resistance Education, officer.
“Our concern obviously,” Oates said, “is about the potential that there are other victims.”
Oates said the department contacted the principals of six schools where Mangino worked. There have been no allegations from the schools, which include Clyde Miller, Vaughn, Lyn Knoll and Arkansas elementaries in Aurora Public Schools, Eastridge Elementary in Cherry Creek, and St. Pius X Catholic School in Aurora, where Mangino worked for four years.
Don James, president of the Aurora Police Association, said he was “extremely surprised” to hear of the allegations against Mangino. Mangino was committed to solving problems in north Aurora, where he spent most of his time on duty, James said.
“Based on what I’ve seen with his actions in the community, you wouldn’t expect these kinds of things to be true,” James said. “Of course, they are still allegations.”
Mangino has been on administrative leave since March 17, Carlson said. There is no evidence Mangino has victimized others, investigators said.
Mangino’s arrest is the second recent arrest of an Aurora police officer for sexual exploitation of a child.
In December, Sgt. Morgan Sellman, 39, who coordinated the department’s D.A.R.E. program, was arrested and booked into El Paso County Jail on suspicion of sexual exploitation of a child, a Class 3 felony that carries a maximum sentence of 12 years in prison, and two counts of sexual exploitation of a child, video, a Class 4 felony.
Sellman is accused of possessing hundreds of videos of child pornography depicting victims as young as 2. He is scheduled for trial Aug. 30, El Paso County DA spokeswoman Shelly LaGrill said.
Staff writer Mitchell Byars contributed to this report.
Carlos Illescas: 303-954-1175 or cillescas@denverpost.com
