The Connecticut Catholic priest who allegedly sold methamphetamine and ran a cross-country drug operation pleaded not guilty to federal charges of "participating in a conspiracy to distribute crystal meth and making six sales to an undercover police officer." However, Father Kevin Wallin, who left the Bridgeport Archdiocese in 2011, did get a dressing-down from the judge.
According to the Connecticut Post, Magistrate Thomas Smith told him, "My gosh, Father, for your first involvement in the criminal justice system, you picked a real doozy... The drug involved is very deadly. It has the capacity of destroying a person's mind ... it is so much worse than heroin ... than cocaine." The Post also noted that Wallin, 61, "was not wearing his priestly garb, but sported an orange jump suit at least two sizes too big."
Wallin still receives a stipend from the Archdiocese, even though he left a few years ago after going through a rough patch. And sources say that he was reportedly seen wearing women's clothing while entertaining "odd-looking men" (who also sometimes wore women's clothing) and had sex in the rectory. After leaving the church, he went into rehab and also opened a smoke shop/adult novelty store.
Federal prosecutors claim that Wallin was selling a lot of meth each week from his Bridgeport home. How much? Well, Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Caruso said that between August and December, Wallin sold $300,000 worth of meth.
"On the scale of federal drug offenses this is about as serious as it gets," he said. "Our evidence is very, very strong. There were six controlled purchases by an undercover police officer ... a wiretap for 30 days in which the nature of the calls is very explicit and left little to the imagination in terms of quantity and dollar amounts."
Just as important, Caruso said, is the "bulk quantity of methamphetamine divided into prepackaged quantities" found during a search of Wallin's second-floor apartment at 22 Golden Hill St., Waterbury... Caruso said the federal probe's evidence includes "a six-page color-coded detailed description and accounting of how much meth was shipped" from Wallin's sources in California and "how much Mr. Wallin paid."
Four others have been arrested for their involvement in the ring, but Wallin was characterized as the ringleader.
His lawyer is trying to get him released for treatment for his meth addiction, "He has no means to flee, nowhere to go."
