I wrote on this thread oncit the story of how my husband, NOT a Catholic, attended a party for a departing co-choir member who was leaving to become a priest.
So husband, heh, now knows all the players in this saga. Because when push comes to shove, Sussex County is a great berg and everyone is three degrees removed from everyone else. I do love it here and don’t forget, Sussex county brought Christine O’Donnell to the world.
Monday before last, husband bolts inside door...”Pat,” he says in loud, very serious whisper. “There’s an arrest warrant out on Todd Benner.”
I’ll use his name because a local yokel radio station, and yes I know all the players in THAT part of the story, done eviscerated the man for two straight days, every hour on the hour.
Again, husband met Todd, the choir director of my church, a choir in which I sing, at that recent party. Husband also met Father Jim...too a player in this story.
My hand flies to mouth. Goodness, Todd is the quietest, sweetest fellow on the planet. Why would a warrant be out on him? “I don’t know,” husband responds, but it’s all over WGMD.”
Of course I turn on WGMD, a local yokel talk radio station, very conservative, managed by one Dan Gaffney, the same guy who conducted that awful offensive interview of Christine O’Donnell, the same guy who later came on the likes of Chris Matthews to discuss his famed interview. The same guy who went on Nancy Grace to discuss the local pervert pediatrician being prosecuted by Beau Biden.
The same guy who forced me to change my email addy but I’ve got EVERY EMAIL SAVED...yes I do....cause this guy is weird....WEIRD.
Everyone in Sussex County is three degrees removed from everybody else and so it goes.
Every hour on the hour, for two straight days, the beginning of every newscast on WGMD would begin...”Police are looking for Todd Benner, Choir Director of St. Jude the Apostle church in Lewes. State police went to the church on Sunday before teh 8:30 mass and Benner had already “escaped” “....yes, once they used the word ESCAPED.
“Father James Hrhea had no comment when contacted by WGMD and we are waiting for a response by the Wilmington Diocese.”
Of course I must investigate, requiring phone calls and such as you might imagine.
Get this. Turns out Todd has two outstanding bench warrants from 2006...for bounced checks and, I’m not making this up...”unleashed dog.”
Two full days of this and anybody reading this thinks that this station would have been broadcasting MY name every hour for two straight days, I gotta bridge to sell you, cheap.
Then I am not the Music Director at a Catholic church, am I?
I’m quite sure that Mr. Gaffney, who I know way too well and wish I didn’t, was hoping that Todd’s crime was some kind of molestation of little boys and I’m also sure that this very ambitious fellow who conducted a blistering and horrific interview with Christine O’Donnell for no reason other than to get his face in the national media sun, was hoping to get the fame that so tantalyzes him.
Meanwhile, our church has been turned upside down as yon reader might imagine. We’ll survive.
Todd was not at the church that 8:30 in the am on a Sunday morning, not because he escaped, but because he..well he just wasn’t there. Father Jim has not fired Todd but he is on paid administrative leave pending resolution of this case. Todd did go and turn himself in and he did have two bad checks out there...again from 2006, and at one time he did, under penalty of death, leave his dog unleashed.
A man’s job almost lost, maybe will be lost though Father Jim’s not buckling to pressure. The Wilmington Diocese? Who knows. I suspect they think it’s what it is...a big hoo-ha.
In fact, it was a PARISHIONER, a parishioner with a beef against Father Jim, who knew about these outstanding bench warrants, who tipped the state police off that Todd was scheduled to play the organ at the 8:30 am mass.
Small potatoes, folks. But a Perfect Storm, with Sussex County all in the national news because of the O’Donnell thing, with Dan Gaffney...guy looks just like Dagwood Bumstead with about a hundred kids....and I GOT EVERY EMAIL SAVED and my husband knows the story of me and Dan Gaffney. So this Manager of WGMD wants to be catapaulted to big time and he has no qualms about helping that national fame along, to include practically ruining a poor fellow’s life and unfairly interviewing a candidate beloved by WEMD’s viewership.
The church hired a substitute choir director and we sang proudly and tall at yesterday’s 4:30 mass. Best way we can help Todd get through this is to soldier on until he can come back.
Meanwhile, Dan Gaffney still has his job...the pervert. Remember, I STILL have every stalking email. Don’t forget that.
I just read my story about the poor Choir Director and went to insure that I had those emails from Dan Gaffney that I described. Above is the subject and FROM line from just one of the gazillion emails he kept sending over and over and over. I'd asked him to please stop and above was his last as I finally changed my email addy.
Dan Gaffney was interviewed by Chris Matthews for his horrific interview of Christine O'Donnell where he called her names, asked if she was still a virgin...awful, awful thing. Dan Gaffney was all over the national news for his very proud evisceration of Christine O'Donnell.
Yet on election night he was announcing the results with great joy. Nothing wrong with a little ambition but what happened to our poor choir director is beyond sad.