Man kills serial pedophile
Tuesday, Feb. 2 2010 @ 9:00AM
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Remember the story of Alberto Cutie -- the incredibly handsome Miami priest who made international headlines after he left the Catholic Church for the Episcopal Church so he could marry the woman he loved? Touching wasn't it -- the fact that a man was giving up his calling from God for true love?
Now that you have that tender image in your head, think of 42-year-old Catholic priest David Dueppen as the dysfunctional, Jerry Springer Show version of Cutie. Yeah...not so pleasant. But, for our purposes, it works.
In fact, it was the Cutie media craze that inspired Dueppen's lover, a 41-year-old stripper named Beatrice Hernandez, to come forward about their own love affair. Unfortunately, the details weren't as blissfully romantic as the former.
Dueppen first met Hernandez seven years ago while she was working as a dancer at a Miami strip joint called Porky's, which has sadly closed since then. Their's was a stormy love affair -- and one that the Church didn't want seeing the light of day. That's why they offered Hernandez $30,000 to end the relationship and keep quiet about it.
But Hernandez just couldn't resist the lure of a man of God. In 2007, she called Dueppen, claiming that she had bore him a son named "David." Dueppen was skeptical and subsequently hired a private investigator to suss out the truth. When no evidence of a "baby David" turned up, he went to the dollar store where she worked demanding an explanation. That's when they slept together again and, this time, made a real baby -- not a boy named David, but a girl named Marilyn Epiphany.
Dueppen tried to keep the baby a secret from the Church, though he supported Hernandez with almost his entire $1,700 monthly Church stipend.
But that wasn't enough to keep Hernandez happy, apparently. She became convinced that Dueppen was sleeping with another woman. In fact, Hernandez was later arrested for stalking a woman she believed to be Dueppen's lover. That case is still pending.
Since then, their love affair has become little more than a courtroom melodrama. Last year, Hernandez filed for a restraining order against Dueppen, claiming that he choked her and threatened to have her killed by monks in brown robes if she revealed the baby's existence. Dueppen denied the charges and instead claimed that he couldn't resist Hernandez's powerful sway over him. He even stated that, because he was abused as a child, he had no defenses against her.
Dueppen has since been fired from his position as an associate priest at St. Maximilian Kolbe Church. He also claims that all the media attention made it nearly impossible for him to get even minimum wage work, pointing to the fact that Marilyn's name has 372,000 Google hits. But that hasn't stopped him from trying to gain custody of their daughter.
In the latest chapter of this bizarre tale, Dueppen and Hernandez appeared in court last Monday. While Dueppen is claiming that Hernandez has a criminal record and accused her of ambushing him with the media, Hernandez is now claiming that he molested their 1-year-old daughter while he was changing her diaper. "When I walked in he got paranoid," Hernandez said.
Dueppen has dismissed all Hernandez's claims as lies and is convinced he will reign victorious. Now working as a security guard, he noted that Marilyn's crib is ready and waiting for her at his home.
3. Fred Munger Armfield
Had Fred Munger Armfield been paying attention, he would have realized that being a man of the cloth does not give one a "get out of jail free" card for illegal sexual indiscretions. If anything, it only seems to make matters even more unsavory, i.e. The Catholic Church.
Still, that didn't stop Armfield from trying to convince authorities in Greenwood, South Carolina of dismissing his solicitation charges simply based on the fact that he was a preacher.
On January 13, an anonymous tipster called the police claiming that a man and a woman continually frequented a downtown Greenwood building after hours when no one was supposed to be there. Officers arrived at the building only to find Armfield walking out of the fourth floor bathroom...with a prostitute nicknamed "Truck Stop."
Armfield, also a former Greenwood councilman, admitted to the officers that he was there to exchange sexual favors with "Truck Stop," whose real name is Melinda Ann Robinson, for cash. At first, Robinson denied Armfield's allegations before she coughed up the five $1 bills Armfield gave her for God knows what. Both of the them were arrested and issued citations.
But, by January 19, Armfield had changed his story completely. He filed a petition with the Greenwood County Courthouse asking to have the charges dismissed basically because he is a preacher...and a sovereign descendant of an ancient, holy people. In the petition, he claims to be a "descendant of the original Moro-Pithecus Disoch, Kenyapithecus and Afro Pithecus, whose ancestors roamed from that point throughout the world. A living flesh and blood being with sovereign status. A femme couleur libre."
Yeah...we have no idea what that means, either.
He goes on to insist that he is "a sentient flesh and blood being, with duties as a Minister for Christ and fulfills all rights and responsibilities of the chosen mission; to counsel bereaved families, feed the hungry, provide for the sick, and clothe the naked while leading lost souls to Christ."
On top of all of Armfield's crazy talk, he also insists that original charges are bogus -- that he never solicited any sex from "Truck Stop." He also is trying to make the claim that police can't use the $5 cash he gave to "Truck Stop" against him as evidence because Federal Reserve notes do not constitute payment -- only the promise of payment.
He is asking for a jury trial and the "immediate release from the false charges, kidnapping and defamation of character" associated with the case.
We're asking that the judge puts him in a mental ward and throws away the key.
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2. Edward Lamar Hughes
It appears that Edward Lamar Hughes's calling to preach the Gospel is so strong that not even his sex offender status can stop him.
Back in 2005, Hughes was arrested after he raped a 15-year-old run away staying at his church, the Bethlehem Evangelistic Mission in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The 66-year-old pled guilty to aggravated battery by an authority figure and was immediately registered as a violent sex offender, barring him from serving as a pastor or being anywhere near minors.
But by the end of last year, Hughes was back in the pulpit.
Supposedly, Chattanooga police were tipped off by a man named Neil Teague. When they arrived at the church on January 17, Hughes was in fact on stage preaching to his flock. The officers unplugged his mic, cuffed him, and then carried him away. And it turned out that sermonizing wasn't Armfield's only violation. Officers soon found that he was also living within two blocks of an elementary school, when he had been ordered to stay at least 1,000 feet away from any school zone.
One would assume that the congregation of Bethlehem Evangelistic Mission -- now renamed Bethlehem's Friendship Circle House of Prayer -- would be happy to no longer have a child rapist in their midst. But that's not the case.
Church members immediately pooled together money to bail Hughes out of jail. And it turns out that church's associate pastor, Daniel Owens, was attempting to cover for the old man. Owens had told police that Hughes had given him the church after his conviction and was now simply helping him. He also claimed that Hughes was little more than a victim of Neil Teague, who was trying to usurp the church from them and put his own mission in its place.
Teague rightfully pointed out that, while that might be true, it doesn't change the fact that Hughes is a child molester and in clear violation of the law.
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1. Johnny Ray Dempsey
Finally, in our number one spot of the week, we bring you West Virginia Pastor Johnny Ray Dempsey -- a man who has done something that Jesus surely would never, ever do.
By all accounts, Dempsey was a dedicated and pious family member as well as an upstanding member of the community of Kermit, West Virginia. He was a preacher at the Great Truth Bible Center at Boy Scout Hollow. And he was also a teacher, working for both the Tug Valley High School as well as Kermit K-8.
So last week, when Dempsey was arrested, it must have been a shock. And it must have been an even greater blow when people discovered that he was actually arrested for incest.
Apparently, the police received a tip that he was sexually abusing his 14-year-old daughter. Police quickly launched an investigation and issued a warrant for his arrest.
The 36-year-old turned himself in and is now being held on a $100,000 bond.
For more examples of atrocious acts that Jesus would never commit, see last week's countdown for the story of Preacher Matt Baker, who was convicted of killing his wife.
Marilyn Epiphany. Hahahaha!
Posted 02/02/2010 at 04:54:36 PM"A femme couleur libre"? A free woman of colour??
Looks like Armfield is confused about his sex too XD
Posted 02/02/2010 at 07:32:54 PM