NEW YORK — A priest accused of stalking Conan O’Brien was found fit to stand trial Friday, although his lawyer acknowledged he has been treated for psychological problems.
The judge issued the ruling after a court-appointed psychologist examined the Rev. David Ajemian of the Archdiocese of Boston. State Justice Abraham Clott also ordered him held on $2,500 cash bail.
Ajemian’s attorney, Eric Seiff, agreed the priest was fit for trial. But Seiff said Ajemian had been taking medication and has been treated for a year for psychological problems.
Monsignor Dennis Sheehan of Our Lady Help of Christians Parish in Newton, Mass., attended the hearing. He said the cardinal of the Boston Archdiocese “asked me to come as a sign of his concern.”
Ajemian, 46, was arrested last week while 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.
Ajemian, who allegedly began writing O’Brien in September 2006, has been placed on leave by the Boston Archdiocese and can’t minister publicly. He was removed in June from his last posting, at St. Patrick Parish in Stoneham, after two years at the parish.
A spokesman at the archdiocese did not respond to questions about whether the move was related to the stalking allegations.
But on July 2, Ajemian wrote to security officials at NBC questioning “why you chose to raise this matter with my superiors after I left you a clear message by phone several weeks ago that I would cease all contact with the show,” according to court papers.
In the 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.”
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