HARTFORD, Conn. -- A suspended Catholic priest from Bridgeport, Conn., pleaded guilty Tuesday to participating in a bi-coastal methamphetamine distribution ring.
Monsignor Kevin Wallin, 61, faces a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison when he is sentenced in June. The sentencing guideline is 135-168 months. He entered his plea in front of Senior Judge Alfred V. Covello in U.S. District Court.
Wallin faced a single charge of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute the powerful stimulate methamphetamine.
The indictment of Wallin on narcotics charges in January stunned the Diocese of Bridgeport, where he formerly served in positions that included personal secretary to successive bishops, including Edward Egan, later appointed a cardinal.
Wallin's last position was that of monsignor of the church's principal parish in Bridgeport, St. Augustine's. He resigned and was granted a sabbatical in 2011 for what the diocese called "health and personal issues" amid signs of increasingly odd behavior.
He was living at the time of his arrest in an apartment in Waterbury, Conn., and is accused of selling methamphetamine he bought from suppliers in California. The West Coast suppliers are charged with Wallin, along with two Connecticut men.
An arrest warrant affidavit prepared by state and federal drug agents presented allegations of substantial drug sales by Wallin for at least a year, his own addiction, and his efforts to buy a sexually explicit adult retail shop in North Haven, Conn., called the Land of Oz.
Wallin was accused of buying crystal meth from a man and woman in Southern California, Chad McCluskey, 43, of San Clemente, and Kristen Laschober, 47, of Laguna Niguel. Two other Connecticut men, Kenneth DeVries, 52, of Waterbury, and Michael Nelson, 40, of Manchester, also were charged in the conspiracy.
• Read more articles by EDMUND H. MAHONY
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