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	Ex-Priest's Past Surprises Neighbors By Daniel Patrick Sheehan and Kathleen Parrish The Morning Call [Pennsylvania] March 23, 2006 http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-b1_5bender-4rmar23,0,6652538.story State police spent much of Wednesday afternoon searching the Lower Macungie Township trailer where convicted child molester and former priest Thomas Bender, arrested Tuesday in an Internet sex sting, has lived for seven years. Bender's neighbors in the Big O mobile home park said they were shocked and angry to learn the quiet 72-year-old in unit 16 has a criminal history. "I can handle people who have been charged with drugs or just about anything else, but not this," said Lori Reiss, 44, who raised two children in the 37-unit park at the foot of Bear Creek Mountain ski resort. Bender was arraigned Wednesday on Long Island, N.Y., where he had allegedly gone for a sexual rendezvous with an online pen pal he believed to be a 14-year-old boy. The correspondent was actually an undercover detective who had spent more than a year communicating with Bender. Bender was charged with five counts of disseminating indecent material to a minor and one count of an attempted criminal sexual act. He was arraigned in 1st District Court in Hempstead, N.Y., and held on $120,000 bail. Results of the house search were unavailable Wednesday, but investigators in New York said they intend to search Bender's desktop and laptop computers for evidence he has been communicating with children. In 1988, Bender agreed to plead guilty to indecent assault and corruption of minors charges. In exchange, prosecutors dropped a felony charge of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, which carries a mandatory five years in prison. Bender, who had admitted to molesting a Pottsville boy over seven years, received seven years' probation. He was the first priest in the Allentown Catholic Diocese to be charged with sexually abusing a child. The victim's family filed a civil suit against the diocese and settled out of court for an undisclosed sum. After his conviction, Bender was defrocked by the Allentown Catholic Diocese. He receives no financial support from the church, spokesman Matt Kerr said. At a news conference Wednesday, Detective Sgt. Lucy Graziano of the Nassau County Police Department said the former priest had spent months "grooming" the pen pal, nurturing him and building a relationship, before the messages turned sexual. Graziano said the grooming is usually standard practice for pedophiles, with the general philosophy being "if he comes on strong right away, the child may get scared." Before traveling to New York, Bender had set up three meetings but canceled them, fearing the boy was really a police officer, Graziano said. When he was arrested he was carrying condoms, beer, pornography, a digital camera, personal lubricant and a laptop computer, police said. Bender has lived alone in the mobile home park for at least seven years. Neighbors said they know little about him, except that he had an occasional visit from a male friend and spent much of his time landscaping his small front yard. Reiss, who lives several doors away, said she was "furious" residents had never been notified of Bender's past. But because Bender's conviction predates Megan's Law, authorities were not required to publicize his history. C. Edgar Opperman IV, the son of the park's owner, said he knew Bender had been a priest, but wasn't aware he had a criminal record. "He seemed like a nice guy," said Opperman, who lives down the street from Bender. "I like to talk to everyone in the park." daniel.sheehan@mcall.com 610-820-6598
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