Long Island Hit by Another Scandal as Investigation of Sexual Misconduct Continues
Episcopal News Service. January 23, 1997 [97-1666]
(ENS) The investigation of charges in Penthouse magazine that priests in the Diocese of Long Island engaged in what it called "bizarre" homosexual rituals in a Brooklyn church are continuing -- but now another scandal has shaken the diocese.
The Rev. Chester LaRue was arrested at St. John's Church in the Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn on January 17 and charged with criminal sale and possession of cocaine. The arrest came three weeks after he was hailed as a hero for fighting off two bandits at the church. Police now say that the fight apparently resulted because LaRue was protecting his supply of drugs.
According to press reports, police said that LaRue's drug-dealing was exposed when one of the robbery suspects told them about drugs at the church. In addition to LaRue, police arrested three other church employees, including one caught as he was packaging cocaine.
The drug scandal comes on the heels of the Penthouse expose in which two Brazilian men allege that the Rev. William Lloyd Andries of St. Gabriel's Church imported them to serve as sex partners -- and that he and other priests held homosexual orgies in the church. Andries denied most of the claims in the article, calling it "a tissue of lies."
Bishop Orris Walker issued a statement October 28 and said that "it was imperative that we make every effort to determine the truth of the assertions to be found in this article." He announced that he was launching an investigation.
The November 9 diocesan convention set aside up to $100,000 for the investigation, which Walker asked Bishop O'Kelley Whitaker, retired bishop of Central New York, to oversee.
In a report to the diocesan Standing Committee on January 16, Whitaker said that he and James F. O'Rorke, a New York lawyer, had conducted 20 interviews. He expressed his deep appreciation for O'Rorke's help and assured the Standing Committee of his confidence with how the investigation was proceeding. Yet he added that the inquiry had uncovered a more complex picture than anticipated and therefore the investigation proceeds more slowly. He added that it would be premature to release anything at this time.
In the meantime, diocesan officials expressed surprise at evidence that several men misrepresenting themselves as investigators for the church have been going house-to-house in the neighborhood around St. Gabriel's, asking questions about the parish and its former pastor. Diocesan officials expressed surprise at the development.
Walker issued a statement to diocesan leaders on January 8, saying that he had returned from a recovery program in Maryland where he dealt with his alcohol abuse. He left the diocese in November after admitting at the diocesan convention that he needed help.
In his statement, Walker said that initially he "was not thrilled by the request to enroll" in the recovery program, but that he found his experience there "a profoundly spiritual one." By the time he left the facility, he said, he felt that he "had been incorporated into a new family."
Since his return to the diocese, Walker said that he has been involved in "a 12-week therapy program" and also "an intensive series of Alcoholics Anonymous meetings." He said that he was grateful "to experience the concern that others in recovery had for one another."