Posted on 02/02/2002 9:52:16 PM PST by excelsior
Edited on 05/07/2004 6:09:54 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
From his rectory next to St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church in Milton to his condominium on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, a popular priest is accused of buying and selling the party drug Ecstasy and methamphetamine.
The Rev. Thomas Crandall, 47, handcuffed and shackled, made his first appearance in U.S. District Court on Monday following his arrest Saturday. He is being held without bond in the Escambia County Jail.
(Excerpt) Read more at pensacolanewsjournal.com ...
The last thing we want are happy, horny people, thats what booze is for.
To the Libertarians, doesn't Ecstasy-like-KILL PEOPLE? Dude, that's rude!
So does sky-diving, racing, and sodomy. Not my prob.
Not really, actually. Ecstasy was banned in 1987 because of a bad batch (called White China). That bad batch didn't contain any MDMA and was entirely something else, but was still sold as Ecstasy - causing death. Feds quickly moved ecstasy in the schedule 1 category... If I sold poison in milk containers, and people bought it thinking it's milk. Would it be right to ban milk?
Link me.
I wonder if the two cases are related--the priest in Chicago, Father Windy, manufactured Ecstasy. The priest with the condo in NO picked up his supply there (in NO) and sold it from the rectory in Pensacola.
Crandall, in Pensy, is said to be cooperating with the Feds in return for a lesser sentence. When he sings, will we find out that this is a catholic version of the Colombian cartel?
-archy-/-
No, but it won't stop you from hoping that it is so that you can continue your Jihad against the priesthood.
The Catholic priest, who already stunned the Milton community when he was arrested on drug charges, isn't getting a whole lot of love from his new neighbors, other inmates at the Escambia County Jail.
He has two strikes against him in the hard society behind bars: He betrayed his principles as a priest by getting involved with drugs, and now he could become an informant to shave time off his prison sentence.
This is the fourth week in jail for the slightly built Crandall, held in "protective custody" since officers stopped his 2000 Jeep Cherokee Jan. 12 and found methamphetamines and Ecstasy.
Officials were even more determined to keep him safe from other inmates after he pleaded guilty Friday to federal drug charges that could net him 40 years in prison. But sentencing won't take place until after he can provide "substantial assistance" to the police - to help them arrest other people in the drug trade.
Common sense requires that Crandall be separated from the hundreds of other inmates, said Director of Detention Dennis Williams.
"There are those who want to help the criminal justice system and those who don't," Williams said. "Sometimes they conflict."
Crandall and about 20 others live in one-man cells, shielded from prisoners who may harm them. The former pastor of St. Rose of Lima Church eats meals in his cell, which he seldom leaves except to exercise outdoors once a week, and then only if the weather cooperates.
Others in protective custody include suspected informants and sexual predators. Also there is convicted child-molester Rick Chavis, charged with helping Alex and Derek King after they admitted killing their father.
Even criminals have their own code of honor, and a priest behind bars is at the bottom of the list, along with child molesters, rapists and people who rob individuals. By violating his position of trust as a priest, Crandall did something that is a sin even to other criminals. Inmates also will see him as a likely informant who can help himself by turning in other criminals. Incidentally, if you want top status in the warped world of crime, become a cat burglar or a bank robber. Criminals credit cat burglars with finesse and bank robbers with skill, Williams said.
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