KEENE — A Catholic priest first reported to police an alleged sex crime that led to the arrest of a Rindge police officer, court documents show.

John Vargas-Cifrino, 35, of Chesham Road, Harrisville, was arrested and charged Thursday morning with one count of attempted felonious sexual assault. Keene police arrested him after an investigation into an accusation that he had attempted to sexually assault a teenage girl.

Vargas-Cifrino had been a long-term, part-time Rindge police officer, who also worked at ConVal High School in Peterborough as an aide helping students with behavioral difficulties.

He has resigned from his police job and has been placed on unpaid leave by the ConVal School District.

Keene police were made aware of the allegations after a Catholic priest contacted Interim Rindge Police Chief Frank Morrill on Aug. 4.

The arrest affidavit on file in the 8th Circuit Court, Keene District, alleges sexual contact with a girl who is between the ages of 13 and 16.

Vargas-Cifrino has been friends with the girl's family for the past 13 years and for the past year had been sleeping on the couch at the family's Keene home, the affidavit said.

The incident is alleged to have taken place in May, but the girl reported to police that before the incident he had been coming into her room in the middle of the night and would lie next to her on her bed.

Vargas-Cifrino had been a police officer for 15 years and a part-time officer in Rindge for the past 11 years, Morrill said.

When the alleged crime was reported to Morrill on Saturday, he immediately placed Vargas-Cifrino on suspension and launched an internal administrative investigation.

On Sunday Vargas-Cifrino resigned from the Rindge Police Department, and in doing so ended the administrative investigation into the allegations.

“When Chief Morrill had confronted Vargas regarding the allegation, Vargas opted to resign, in lieu of a possible termination,” the affidavit said.

Keene police have declined to comment further aside from a statement released after Vargas-Cifrino's arrest.

Morrill said on Thursday that additional charges are anticipated.

Vargas-Cifrino was arraigned on the felony charge Thursday and released on $10,000 personal recognizance bail with conditions including no unsupervised contact with anyone under the age of 18, no possession of firearms, continued mental health counseling and no out-of-state travel.

Vargas-Cifrino is to return to court on Aug. 15 at 1:30 p.m. for a probable cause hearing.

mpierce@newstote.com