A Dazzling Priest’s Lurid Fall, to Drug Case Suspect

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The diocese told him to get a medical evaluation. Months passed. “He was dragging his feet,” Mr. Wallace said. “We were, ‘Father, when are you going to go?’ ”

Finally, Bishop Lori ordered him to go. The diocese would not specify where he went, but someone familiar with the case said that he underwent an extensive examination at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.

It found that he needed residential treatment to deal with psychological and emotional issues, including excessive narcissism and a penchant for sex. He was also suspected of using drugs.

But he resisted seeking care. On Oct. 7, Bishop Lori suspended his faculties, meaning he was not allowed to act publicly as a priest, a decision the diocese kept private.

On Oct. 31, 2011, Monsignor Wallin agreed to check intoSt. Luke Institute, a psychiatric hospital in Silver Spring, Md., that treats Catholic clergymen and others. While there, according to some who know him, it was determined that he had been using amphetamines. He left the hospital against staff wishes on Nov. 4.

The next month, Bishop Lori told him that if he did not accept further treatment he could be defrocked.

Again he dithered. A new year arrived. By now, according to authorities, he had changed professions. He had become a drug dealer.

Phones Are Tapped

He was living in a snug apartment in a matter-of-fact two-story building in Waterbury, in a humble neighborhood of shoebox-shaped apartments. He was also renting the unit across the hall from him, where authorities said a confederate lived.

This was his new demarcated principality, where law enforcement officials said he sold crystal meth. At least once, they said, he hid drugs in a magazine and made the exchange in a parking lot. An informant told agents that the priest was also an addict.

New York drug enforcement agents got on to him from a New York drug distributor who said he met the priest at a party in early 2012 and began buying from him. The man became an informer.

New York agents tipped off Connecticut agents, who enlisted help from the State Police. An undercover officer, according to authorities, made six drug purchases from Monsignor Wallin. Eventually, his phones were tapped.

Authorities said he received his supply from a California couple, Chad McCluskey, 43, who was in the electronics business, and Kristen Laschober, 47, a wardrobe stylist. Both of them filed for bankruptcy last year. They have also been charged in the case and are to be arraigned in Federal District Court in Hartford on Thursday.

Neighbors said men streamed into Monsignor Wallin’s apartment, many of them arriving in cars like BMWs and Corvettes. Sounds of sex could be heard.

He stored cases of good wine in the basement, as well as glass pipes and bottles of butane. He was seen doing his laundry, which included lace panties and other articles of women’s clothing.

Father Mecca visited him a few times. “Sometimes he was fine and others he was a wreck,” he said. “His phone rang a lot, and he texted a lot, but I didn’t know what was going on.”

One aggrieved neighbor kept a prayer box. Each night, this person dropped a prayer in it that said, “Please God, take the devil out of this house.”

Pressured by the diocese, Monsignor Wallin on March 24 entered St. John Vianney Center, a behavioral health treatment center for the clergy and religious in Downingtown, Pa., for a three-month program. He left the hospital after 28 days. The diocese concluded he was delusional about the scale of his issues.

“When he bolted the second time, we knew we had big problems,” Mr. Wallace said.

In early May 2012, Bishop Lori issued a decree that suspended Monsignor Wallin from priestly duties, which was circulated among dioceses but not made public.

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On Jan. 22, dressed in a baggy orange jumpsuit, a subdued Monsignor Wallin pleaded not guilty at his arraignment in a Hartford federal court. Prosecutors tabulated that he had grossed more than $300,000 from drug sales.

His Waterbury apartment stands vacant. A picture of Jesus beckons in the window.