Meth Priest's Pal Worked for Bondage Boutique
By Michael P. Mayko
HARTFORD -- He was the man who would "hold down the fort" for the drug operation while "Monsignor Meth" was vacationing in London. He was also a guy who worked in a sex and leather fetish shop. And on Jan. 2, the day before the Bridgeport Diocese's former Monsignor Kenneth Wallin was to leave on the two-week vacation, the suspended Roman Catholic priest took one of his best customers to the apartment across the hall and introduced him to Kenneth "Lyme" Devries. Wallin even told the customer he was paying the rent on Devries' apartment. The customer, however, was an undercover cop, according to court documents and arrest affidavits. The next day, his friends would show up at both Wallin's and Devries' apartments on Waterbury's Golden Hill Street not as unsavory customers, but arresting officers. On Monday, Devries, 52, will be arraigned in Hartford. Prior to his Connecticut arrest with the former priest, Devries worked for a leather and adult entertainment shop in San Francisco, selling bondage gear, including whips and paddles, according to public records. The federal investigation also revealed that Wallin, 61, was trying to buy Land of Oz, an adult porn shop in North Haven; authorities said Wallin's sex shop was to be used for laundering drug profits. The probe also exposed Wallin's alleged taste for cross-dressing and engaging in sexual activity with strangely dressed men in the rectory room at St. Augustine Cathedral in Bridgeport. Devries is charged with conspiring between February 2012, and January 2013, with Wallin and Michael Nelson and the accused suppliers from California -- Chad McCluskey and Kristen Lashcober -- to distribute crystal meth in Connecticut. J. Patten Brown, III, Devries' court-appointed lawyer, said Friday his client will plead not guilty to the charge when he appears before U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas P. Smith. The charge carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years, with the possibility of life in prison. Wallin and Nelson previously pleaded not guilty to the federal charges. Brown said he knows little about his client's role except what is contained in court documents. "That leaves a lot of unanswered questions," the defense lawyer said. Public records show that Devries lived at 12 Woodhaven Drive in Portland, Conn., but neighbors deny knowing him. Prior to that, he lived in San Francisco and Richmond, Calif. California public documents show he worked for Leatherwright in Richmond and Mr. S. Leather Co. in San Francisco. The latter's website advertises itself as having the "world's largest collection of bondage gear, leather and latex clothing, chastity devices, electro-stim ... whips, paddles, dildoes and much more." A call left on the store's answering machine was not returned Friday. McCluskey and Laschober, who were arrested Jan. 10 in Nevada, have not yet been brought to Connecticut by the U.S. Marshal's Service. An affidavit filed in court by U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent Jay Salvatore puts Devries at the forefront of the alleged conspiracy. Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Caruso said the Connecticut faction was headed by Wallin, the former pastor of both St. Peter's Church in Danbury and St. Augustine Cathedral in Bridgeport who also once served as secretary to Bridgeport Bishops Walter W. Curtis and Edward M. Egan. The agent said Wallin took the undercover officer across the hall and introduced him to Devries in case he needed meth while the suspended priest was away. He even provided Devries' cellphone number to the undercover officer. A similar occurrence happened on Jan. 1 during a conversation the DEA recorded between Wallin and a customer named Kenneth Mason, who has not been charged with any crime. "Oh no, 12 days, what am I going to do?" Mason asks when told Wallin is going on vacation. "... Lyme will be covering things when I'm gone," Wallin replied. During the investigation, the DEA recorded hundreds of hours of conversations involving drugs, according to court documents. In one on Dec. 17, Devries allegedly called Wallin asking to borrow a pipe from another man. Wallin told the other man to let Devries borrow a pipe "either the small water pipe (or) the one with the big loop in it." Contact: mmayko@ctpost.com;
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