Bridgeport Priest Gets 65-month Sentence for Selling Drugs

By Edmund H. Mahony
Hartford Courant
May 7, 2015

http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-meth-priest-sentence-0508-20150507-story.html

A once well-regarded Bridgeport priest who became a drug addict and large-scale distributor of highly-addictive methamphetamine, was sentenced to 65 months in prison during a legal hearing heavy with discussion of atonement and packed with 100 or more of his supporters

Suspended Bridgeport Monsignor, Kevin Wallin, who over 30 years as a priest was chief assistant to two Bishops, said his arrest two years ago saved him from almost certain death from drug abuse. In lengthy remarks to Senior U.S. District Judge Alfred V. Covello, he said his sole remaining ambition is to repay family, parishioners and the church for their support and attempt to become again a productive clergyman.

"God was watching over me the day I was arrested," Wallin, 63, said. "The ability to get out of that, I owe to the people in this room, to the people who have written to me, to others. The drugs, the shame that I experienced, the remorse, the embarrassment? That would have killed me. They saved me. They did this to me after what I did to them."

Covello said he had not seen what he called such abundant and eloquent support for a criminal defendant in 22 years on the bench. But he said the law required Wallin to spend more time in prison, in addition to the 28 months he has served since his arrest.