By Ryan Sabalow
Record Searchlight
July 6, 2011
http://www.redding.com/news/2011/jul/06/redding-cardiac-whistle-blower-priest-lived-prosti/
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| The Rev. John Corapi |
The superiors of a popular Catholic priest, one of the key whistle-blowers in the Redding Medical Center heart surgery scandal, said he lived with a former prostitute, abused alcohol and drugs, lived a lavish lifestyle and did a number of other unpriestly things.
In a statement released Tuesday, The Rev. Gerard Sheehan, of the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity, wrote that The Rev. John Corapi had lived with a former prostitute and repeatedly abused alcohol and drugs. He also sent sexually charged text messages to a woman in Montana, Sheehan wrote.
“He holds legal title to over $1 million in real estate, numerous luxury vehicles, motorcycles, an ATV, a boat dock, and several motor boats, which is a serious violation of his promise of poverty as a perpetually professed member of the society,” Sheehan wrote.
In 2005, Corapi was awarded $2.7 million in a whistle-blower lawsuit, after being the first patient to allege that Redding Medical Center’s doctors were performing unnecessary heart procedures.
Corapi, who has vehemently denied the allegations his superiors have leveled against him, announced last month on his blog that would no longer minister as a priest, but he maintained he hadn’t left the church. He also accused the church leadership of trying to oust him without cause, based on “unsubstantiated, undocumented” allegations from a woman “that I can honestly say I did more to help and support than any human being in my entire life.”
“There are certain persons in authority in the church that want me gone, and I shall be gone,” he said.
Corapi wrote he will continue speaking to audiences under the name “Black Sheep Dog,” which is also the title of his blog, Twitter handle and his future autobiography.
Corapi’s order announced in March that his superiors were investigating allegations that he had affairs with a former employee and abused drugs. Sheehan said on Tuesday that after the order received a written complaint from the woman, church leaders formed a three-person fact-finding team, including a priest-canonist, a psychiatrist, and a lawyer, to investigate.
Sheehan said that during the investigation, Corapi filed a lawsuit against the woman, accusing her of defaming him and breach of contract for breaking a non-disclosure agreement. The woman wasn’t named on Corapi’s blog or in Sheehan’s statement.
“He offered the woman $100,000 to enter this agreement,” Sheehan said, adding that Corapi pressured others not to speak to the fact-finding team.
Sheehan said the order sent out a statement on Tuesday to keep Corapi from misleading his faithful followers by “his false statements and characterizations.”
Sheehan ordered Corapi “under obedience” to return home to the society’s regional office in Robstown, Texas, and take up residence there. He also ordered Corapi to dismiss the lawsuit he filed against his accuser.
Corapi has said he was ordained in 1991 after he found his faith following years of drug abuse, homelessness and crime. The charismatic priest quickly built a large following as he broadcast his sermons on television, radio and on the Internet.
Corapi’s involvement in the Redding Medical Center scandal began in 2002, when he received a heart catheterization and other tests from the hospital’s cardiology chief, Dr. Chae Hyun Moon. The doctor insisted he needed immediate open-heart surgery, Corapi said in court documents and in interviews.
Corapi told investigators he postponed the surgery for a week and traveled to Las Vegas, where four heart specialists tested him, examined him and told him he was perfectly healthy.
Corapi notified the FBI.
In October 2002, acting on Corapi’s allegations and other complaints of unnecessary procedures, a team of FBI agents raided the Butte Street hospital.
The raid, which drew national headlines and a “60 Minutes” expose, sent the stock of the hospital’s parent company, Tenet Healthcare Corp., tumbling.
In subsequent years, Tenet, the doctors and their insurance companies paid out a half-billion dollars in criminal and civil settlements. No charges ever were filed, and the doctors maintained their innocence.
Moon’s medical license was stripped by the Medical Board of California in 2007.
Two cardiac surgeons, Kent Brusett and Fidel Realyvasquez Jr., were placed on probation by the medical board but were allowed to keep practicing.
The hospital since has been sold twice, and its name was changed to Shasta Regional Medical Center.
Corapi vowed on his blog to continue to “dispense truth and hope to a world so much in need of it.”
“I shall continue, black sheep that I am, to speak; and sheep dog that I am, to guard the sheep — this time around not just in the Church, but also in the entire world,” he said. “I am, indeed, not ready to be extinguished.”
Meanwhile, the Corapi’s commercial website announced an “inventory clearance sale,” offering 25 percent off DVDs and audio recordings of his sermons.
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