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	Sources: Priest Stalked Comedian in Italy Report Says Suspect Treated As Bipolar Boston Herald November 9, 2007 http://news.bostonherald.com/news/regional/general/view.bg?articleid=1043583 A Bay State priest accused of stalking late-night talk-show host Conan O'Brien traveled to Italy and California in an obsessive mission to confront the comic at every turn, police sources say. The Rev. David Ajemian, 46, turned up in Italy while O'Brien was on a trip there. He then sent the Brookline-born comedian an Italian postcard, bearing a postmark from the same Italian town where O'Brien had just been, law-enforcement sources told the New York Post. Ajemian, who according to court documents has in the past also lashed out at tennis great John McEnroe in threatening letters, now faces charges of harassing and stalking O'Brien -referring to himself as the Brookline native comic's "most dangerous fan" in bizarre, rambling letters obtained by the Herald. He was arrested Friday in New York City as he waited in line - wearing his priestly collar - to see "Late Night With Conan O'Brien" even after he had been warned by police to stay away from the comedian. Until June, Ajemian had worked at St. Patrick's Church in Stoneham. The day before his arrest, WHDH-TV Ch. 7 reported, Ajemian had forwarded to the station via e-mail a copy of a letter he had sent to a vicar in the church in which he protested his lack of assignment to churches, saying he had been released from a mental health center after being treated for bipolar disorder. "You will see for several years I have felt a call to contact and challenge several major celebrities in the sports and entertainment world," he wrote the church, WHDH reported. Ajemian's mentor at St. John's Seminary in Boston said last night Ajemian is a "normally good guy who needs psychiatric help." "I don't understand it. He thought Conan O'Brien was a friend of his, but he isn't," said the Rev. John Mark Hannon of his seminary pupil. After his arrest, Ajemian was ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation. He is due back in a Manhattan court this morning. In a February letter to O'Brien, he wrote, "This is your priest stalker again, the one who has been tracking you through space and time," signing the missive "Padre 009," according to court documents. Online NBC message boards contain strange postings targeting O'Brien under the name Padre 009, but it was not confirmed they were posted by the priest. Ajemian's attorney, Eric Seiff, declined comment. Ajemian attended the prestigious Trinity School in Manhattan and graduated from Milton Academy in 1979 and then Harvard. The notes Ajemian allegedly sent to O'Brien also include references to Ajemian's "childhood nemesis," tennis Hall of Famer John McEnroe, who went to the exclusive Trinity School with Ajemian on New York's Upper West Side. "John McEnroe . . . assaulted me once in the seventh grade when I wouldn't give up my seat to him . . . (I'm) coming to Boston next week for an old-timers' tournament at BU and I'll be in the stands waiting for his confession," reads the April note Ajemian allegedly penned to O'Brien. Neither McEnroe nor O'Brien would comment. Ajemian and O'Brien both attended Harvard in the 1980s and may have met through Catholic church connections in Massachusetts. Ajemian worked at parishes in Peabody, Brookline, Stoneham and Charlestown after he was ordained in 2001. The archdiocese has since barred Ajemian from publicly ministering. It also has assigned two people to help the Manhattan District Attorney's Office with the case, sources say. The Herald's Joe Dwinell and Jessica Van Sack, along with the New York Post, contributed to this report.
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