By Phil Trexler
Beacon Journal
March 3, 2011
http://www.ohio.com/news/break_news/117346803.html
[with video]
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Video of a handcuffed Akron priest who makes sexual comments to police, contends he is part black and invokes the name of Oprah Winfrey has gone viral.
In the 20-minute video shot inside the Brimfield Township police station, the Rev. Ignatius Kury, 35, rants to a police officer and at times offers sex in exchange for his freedom.
''It's unusual at best,'' said Brimfield police Chief David Blough.
The small department in western Portage County was deluged Thursday with media requests to obtain the police video. The Smoking Gun and the Huffington Post were among the national websites to post a story.
Kury, a priest at Holy Ghost Ukrainian Byzantine Catholic Church in South Akron, did not respond to a message seeking comment. He is due in Kent Municipal Court on Friday.
Kury, who was honored in 2010 as an outstanding alumnus of St. Vincent-St. Mary High School in Akron, was arrested Sunday after he was found hiding under a coat in the back seat of his car.
Police say his blood-alcohol content was 0.20 percent, nearly 3 times the legal driving limit.
Once inside the police station after his arrest, police say, Kury exposed his penis to officers, prompting them to put him in a cell and focus a camera on him. Because the small department does not have bars on the cell, Kury was handcuffed to a cinder-block wall.
While waiting to be released, Kury is seen in the video yelling, swearing, screaming and crying. He first blames his woes on an Academy Award show party he apparently attended earlier Sunday. He told police he drank wine at the party but denied being drunk.
''I didn't even want to go to that damn Oscar party,'' he says to the officer.
He then pleads to be released and asks the officer if he wants sexual favors. He also compliments the male officer's eyebrows.
''I'll give you a sermon on the mount,'' Kury tells an officer. ''Oh, my Christ on the cross, you have me shackled. Get these [expletive] bars off of me, I'm getting a rash.''
Dressed in civilian clothes — a white shirt, button-down vest, slacks and red socks — Kury calls the officer names throughout the video, but the patrolman never responds. Kury then asks if the officer wants oral sex.
''You have fabulous eyebrows. Do they come naturally?'' he asks. ''You want me to give you [oral sex]. Is that what you're asking? Do you want me to be a sexual slave?''
He then tells the officer to remove the cuffs and that he is ''not Jeffrey Dahmer. I'm not a monster. . . . I believe in my own dignity. I'm not going to get on my knees and give you oral sex.''
Kury never stops speaking during the video. At one point, he says he's being treated ''like Uncle Tom'' by being handcuffed to the wall.
He tells the officer he believes he's being mistreated for being ''part black'' and threatens to expose his treatment to talk show host Oprah Winfrey. A police report indicates Kury is white.
''Do you know what kind of [expletive] storm you're going to be under because I am part black?'' he asks. ''Oh, I can't wait. Oprah Winfrey is going to have her fat [buttocks] down here and you're going to have your [buttocks] up the wall and not in a good way.''
A motorist called 911 just before midnight to report Kury as a possible drunken driver. According to a report police released, Kury crawled from the front seat to the back when an officer approached his car on Melody Road.
Police said Kury was in a fetal position, hiding under a coat, while in the back seat of his 1997 Chrysler. The car was locked and the motor was running. Officers say he smelled of alcohol and was unsteady on his feet.
When police asked him to get out of his car, Kury told them he was auditioning for American Idol.
He failed several field sobriety tests before he was arrested. His car was impounded.
At the end of the video, Kury is calmer as he signs a document and is picked up by a family member.
''Well, isn't this a fine hi and how do you do,'' he says to himself.
Phil Trexler can be reached at 330-996-3717 or ptrexler@thebeaconjournal.com
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