Take Action

Monsignor Is Sentenced for Running a Meth Ring

New York Times, May 7, 2015

HARTFORD — A suspended Roman Catholic clergyman was sentenced to five and a half years in prison on Thursday shortly after apologizing for running a methamphetamine distribution ring and letting down scores of friends and parishioners.

The clergyman, Msgr. Kevin Wallin, had faced a maximum sentence of 10 years and had asked for four.

“I have never from the day I was arrested denied my guilt,” Monsignor Wallin, 63, said at the sentencing hearing in Federal District Court here. “The day I was arrested was a very good day. It took me out of that situation.”

Prosecutors had said Monsignor Wallin received meth in the mail from California suppliers and supplied a New York distributor. He also bought an adult video and sex toy shop named Land of Oz and Dorothy’s Place, apparently to launder profits from the drug ring, they said.

Monsignor Wallin, who pleaded guilty to a meth conspiracy charge in 2013, has been in jail for 28 months. With time served, he will be behind bars for about three more years.

Judge Alfred V. Covello also imposed supervised release of five years. He told Monsignor Wallin he could “not ignore your decision to infect your community” with the drug.