BishopAccountability.org
	Bail Set in Ex-Priest Sex Case By Wil Cruz Newsday [Long Island NY] March 23, 2006 http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-liprie234672279 mar23,0,628992.story?coll=ny-linews-headlines The former priest from Pennsylvania who was busted in Nassau on his way to a tryst with someone he thought was a 14-year-old boy was carrying beer, candy and gay pornography, police said yesterday. After more than a year of on-line communication with a Nassau police detective posing as a teenager, Thomas J. Bender of Macungie, Pa., drove 2 1/2 hours to meet the perceived teenager at an undisclosed location on Long Island. The plan, police said, was to go to a hotel for sex. When he was arrested Tuesday night, Bender, 72, was carrying an assortment of candies, two Beck's beers, two condoms and a gay pornographic DVD. Police also recovered a laptop computer and a personal computer at Bender's home, which will be examined to see whether Bender had inappropriate communication with children. Bender was charged with five counts of disseminating indecent material to a minor, a felony, and a single count of attempted criminal sexual act, a misdemeanor, police said. Each count of the first charge carries a maximum sentence of 1 to 4 years in prison. Bender was arraigned yesterday in First District Court in Hempstead and held on $120,000 bail. The conversations with the detective - in the form of instant messaging or e-mail - began in September 2004, and remained non-sexual for the first few months, said Det. Sgt. Lucy Graziano of the Crimes Against Property Squad. "If he comes on strong right away the child may get scared," Graziano said at a news conference yesterday, explaining police tactics. Bender had scheduled three prior meetings with the perceived teenager, Graziano said, only to cancel them abruptly. He occasionally communicated to the undercover detective that he didn't believe the detective was who he said he was. Bender had been a priest in Pennsylvania, though Graziano said she could not say at which parish. A man named Thomas Bender, once a pastor of Most Blessed Sacrament Roman Catholic Parish in Bally, Pa., served 7 years' probation starting in 1988 for molesting a teenager for several years. Graziano said there was still "a lot of investigating to do," and she could not definitively say if they were the same man. She did confirm that the man arrested Tuesday was convicted of a crime in Pennsylvania. Graziano also said that Bender was laicized, that is, stripped of his priesthood, from the Roman Catholic Church last year.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.