Priest Busted For Smoking, Selling Crack

An Episcopal priest was arrested as he smoked a crack pipe while typing his sermon, and was charged with dealing drugs from his church, police said.

Just three weeks earlier, the Rev. Chester LaRue had been hailed as a hero for fighting off two bandits.

LaRue, 54, was charged with criminal sale and possession of cocaine after his arrest Friday at the rectory of St. John’s Episcopal Church, said police Officer Sonia Oquendo. Three other people, one of them his nephew, were arrested on the same charges, she said.

“Holy goodness,” said parishioner Bill Graves, 50. “I didn’t even think he smoked cigarettes.”

LaRue had called police on Dec. 30 to report an attempted robbery at the 140-year-old church in Brooklyn, saying he had fought off a pair of bandits who forced their way inside, police said.

The balding, gray-bearded LaRue became an instant hero.

However, a robbery suspect arrested several days later alleged there was a drug operation in the church rectory and that led to “a very thorough investigation,” said police Lt. Kevin Barry.