Priest Accused Of Stalking Show Host Due In Court

BOSTON -- A Boston Archdiocese priest accused of stalking late-night talk show host Conan O'Brien is expected to appear in a New York courtroom Friday to face charges of stalking and aggravated harassment.

The Rev. David Ajemian, 46, was arrested last week after allegedly trying to enter a taping of "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" in New York City despite being warned to stay away by NBC security personnel.

Ajemian, who attended Harvard University in the 1980s at the same time as O'Brien, a Brookline, Mass., native, has been undergoing psychiatric evaluations over the past week while being held in a New York City jail. Ajemian graduated from Harvard in 1983, while O'Brien graduated in 1985.

The Boston Archdiocese has place Ajemian on leave and barred him from public ministry. It has not made any public comments about the case. He was removed in June from his last posting, at St. Patrick Parish in Stoneham, after two years at the parish.

His attorney, Eric Seiff, said Ajemian was being held at a New York jail, but declined to comment except to say "it will be worked out in court."

According to new reports, Ajemian followed O'Brien all the way to California and as far as Italy. The local priest called himself O'Brien's "Most Dangerous Fan," and allegedly wrote the star numerous letters. In a letter written in February, the priest allegedly wrote, "This is your priest stalker again. The one who has been tracking you through space and time." It was signed "Padre 009."

"That's not the Father David we know," one former parishioner said.

Authorities allege that Ajemian has been sending O'Brien letters for the past 14 months.

In the same letter, he called himself "a stalker of a very different order than the kind you are used to dealing with" and dared them to "tell Conan about your surveillance of me."

In a previous letter, Ajemian expressed frustration to O'Brien that he had been denied a spot in his audience after he'd flown to New York "in the dimming hope that you might finally acknowledge me."

"Is this the way you treat your most dangerous fans???" he wrote. "You owe me big time pal."

He also told O'Brien he knew where he lived and wrote, "Remember (mobster) Frank Costello once dodged a bullet in your building and so can you."

Ajemian's seminary mentor, the Rev. John Mark Hannon said Thursday he believes Ajemian can still be a good priest if he receives proper psychiatric help.

"He was a good seminarian. He was kind and generous and affable and concerned how people were," said Hannon, who mentored Ajemian before he graduated from St. John's Seminary in 2001.

"He's very likable," Hannon added, "it's just he's stupid, apparently."

NBC said Conan O'Brien would not comment on Ajemian.

After graduating from Harvard, Ajemian took a roundabout route to the priesthood. Among his jobs was work in 1990 as a legal assistant at the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, and he also worked as a teacher.

The Rev. Hannon, pastor at St. Joseph the Worker Parish in Hanson, said Ajemian never spoke to him about O'Brien and never gave any indication anything unusual was happening in his life. He's not a dangerous person, Hannon said.

"I still consider him a friend," he said.