‘Monsignor Meth’ gets more prison time
Hartford (AP) — A Connecticut Roman Catholic priest who ran a methamphetamine ring was sent back to prison for nine months on Thursday for failing another drug test while on supervised release from his first stint behind bars.
Former Monsignor Kevin Wallin appeared in federal court in Hartford, where he asked Judge Alfred Covello to continue his supervised release so he could begin a longterm residential treatment program for substance abuse.
But Covello had warned Wallin back in April, after he failed several drug tests, that he would be put back in the slammer if he flunked another one. Probation officials said Wallin tested positive for methamphetamine earlier this month.
Wallin was handcuffed in the courtroom and taken away by marshals. He is expected to serve the time at the federal prison in Danbury.
“I know my behavior has not been good,” Wallin told the judge before being sentenced. “I have no desire to continue down this path. My addiction came into my life late and I need this treatment and I know that I need this treatment.”
Wallin, dubbed “Monsignor Meth” in some media reports, pleaded guilty in 2013 to a methamphetamine distribution conspiracy charge. He was detained in prison until his sentencing in May 2015, when he received a prison term of more than five years. After completing a prison drug abuse program, he was freed on supervised release in November 2016.
Federal investigators said Wallin had associates in California send him methamphetamine beginning in late 2008 or early 2009. By 2011, Wallin’s partners were sending him one to three pounds of meth a month and Wallin was running the drug operation out of his apartment in Waterbury, investigators said.
Wallin also bought an adult video and sex toy shop in North Haven and apparently intended to launder drug proceeds that totaled in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, federal agents said in court documents.
Wallin, 66, resigned as monsignor at St. Augustine Parish in Bridgeport in June 2011 and was banned from public ministry by the church a few months later. A spokesman for the Bridgeport Diocese said proceedings are underway to permanently remove Wallin from the priesthood.