Hollister
– A former St. Francis Retreat Friar was ordered to stand trial
on felony drug charges Thursday after San Benito County prosecutors
finished presenting their case against him.
Hollister – A former St. Francis Retreat Friar was ordered to stand trial on felony drug charges Thursday after San Benito County prosecutors finished presenting their case against him.
Kelly James Cullen, 53, faces two counts of felony drug possession, as well as possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia, both misdemeanors, stemming from an October 2006 arrest. Cullen will appear in court again June 27, when he is expected to enter a plea.
Taking the stand Thursday, Cullen admitted he had bought marijuana and possessed prescription pills that did not belong to him.
Cullen also said he had a drug problem, was seeking help and encouraged others with drug or alcohol issues to do the same.
“It has been embarrassing,” Cullen said outside the courtroom Thursday. “More for the Franciscans and the St. Francis Retreat, as well as for me.”
After the arrest, Cullen checked into a rehabilitation program in Minnesota specifically for priests and monks struggling with addiction.
In March, Cullen moved to Oceanside and began working at Mission San Luis Rey.
He said the move put him closer to his father, and has made his efforts to deal with his substance issues easier.
Deputy District Attorney Peter Leröe-Muñoz, who led the prosecution, said he was pleased that Judge Steven Sanders ordered Cullen to trial.
“I think the evidence was very clear,” Leröe-Muñoz said. “We hope he gets the help he needs.”
Cullen’s attorney, Bill Tiffany, said he was disappointed in the outcome of the hearing, after arguing that authorities did not have probable cause to arrest his client or search his car.
“The evidence and facts we presented were more credible than the prosecution,” Tiffany said. “I believe Mr. Cullen when it comes down to it.”
During the hearing, both sides presented different versions of the events.
It was not disputed that San Benito County Sheriff’s deputy Jack Smiley arrested Cullen on suspicion of drug possession after responding to a disturbance call on Oct. 10, 2006, on Betabel Road and Highway 101.
Smiley took the stand Wednesday, testifying that he responded to the call and found Cullen in a green Saturn at the end of Betabel Road at approximately 2:30pm that day.
The deputy said a foreman drove up in a white truck and told him a man in a green Saturn “had been making sexual requests” to the field workers.
However, Cullen testified that he’d bought a Diet Coke from a taco truck that was in the area when Smiley arrived. Cullen also said the deputy never spoke to a foreman in a white pickup truck.
Cullen testified that Smiley approached him with his gun drawn, and searched the middle console of the car, finding the marijuana. He said the drugs were not in plain view.
When Smiley took the stand Wednesday, he said he never drew his gun. Smiley said that while checking Cullen’s license and registration, Cullen pointed into the car at pamphlets for the St. Francis Retreat.
As he leaned down to look inside the car, Smiley said, he saw a clear plastic bag full of marijuana in the car’s middle console.
Upon a second look, Smiley testified, he also saw a methamphetamine pipe in the middle console.
However, when Cullen took the stand Thursday, he said the methamphetamine pipe was in a paper bag in the back seat of the car. Cullen added that the pipe, along with a small bag of methamphetamine found in the trunk of his car, belonged to a Gilroy man from whom he’d purchased the marijuana several days before.
Tiffany argued that the deputy had no probable cause to arrest Cullen and eventually search the car and find the drugs.
The defense called Angelo Cardinalli, a Franciscan monk with the St. Francis Retreat, to attest for Cullen’s character.
Cardinalli said he was stationed with the defendant for six years while Cullen was the director of the Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation in San Francisco. The two spent a almost a year together at the St. Francis Retreat, Cardinalli said.
“His reputation was one of forthrightness,” Cardinalli said. “Straightforward.”
After hearing both sides’ arguments, Sanders said Cullen had a motive to fabricate his version of the story.
“This case needs to go to the jury based on what I’ve heard,” Sanders said in court Thursday evening.
Cullen was arraigned for the charges on Feb. 27 and pleaded not guilty to those charges on March 20.
If convicted of felony drug possession, Cullen could face up to one year in state prison.
The probation department could determine that Cullen is eligible for Proposition 36 probation, in which he’d receive treatment.
