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Sep 22, 2009 1:23 pm US/Eastern
Ex-Stripper Talks About Affair & Baby With Priest
PEMBROKE PINES (CBS4) ―
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Father David Dueppen and Beatrice Hernandez
CBS
The ex-stripper who says she had a long-running affair with a South Florida priest, and then had his baby, spoke out Tuesday. It was a packed house when Beatrice Hernandez and her attorney met with reporters at the attorney's Coral Gables office.
"This story has kind of taken on a very big life of its own in recent days. It's been a little bit of a circus atmosphere. People need to remember that there are human beings involved here," said attorney Michael Feiler.
Hernandez spoke about her relationship with Father David Dueppen and how he was able to seduce her during their on-again, off-again affair which first started in 2003.
"A lot of it is how he speaks to you and how he expresses himself so good, he can wrap you up so good, I mean really good. I've never met anybody who can speak to you and wrap you so good like David," explained Hernandez.
She knows she has her critics and that some are making jokes and laughing at her story but she says she went public to protect her and her baby, 9-month old Marilyn Epiphany Hernandez.
"This is what I'm looking for, protection for my daughter and I. This is not a case of money or for anybody to be making fun. I am a human being," said Hernandez.
Hernandez, who spoke at length with CBS4's Jim DeFede last week, explained that she began her affair with Father Dueppen nearly seven years ago after the priest came into the strip club Porky's. They began dating and eventually lived together before breaking up in 2005.
Hernandez claims she separated from the priest after he began insisting she visit swinger clubs with him so he could watch her have sex with other women. He told her it was the only way for her to excise the demons from her soul.
In a previous interview with DeFede, Hernandez claimed, "He said, `The only way the spirits are going to leave you is if you get involved with women.' I said, `David I'm not into women. I've never been there and I don't like that. I'm really serious with you. I feel something very special for you, especially with you being a priest and I've been raised Catholic. I feel something very special for you so why do we have to go there?'"
After she left Father Dueppen, Hernandez notified the church about the affair and claimed her religious faith had been exploited by Father Dueppen.
In 2006, Hernandez said the church paid $100,000 to quietly settle the case before its details became public. The church confirms that it paid Hernandez for an inappropriate affair between Father Dueppen and Hernandez, but they would not confirm the amount.
After the payment was made, Father Dueppen was relocated from St. Francis de Sales on Miami Beach to a new parish in Broward County, St. Maximilian Kolbe Church in Pembroke Pines.
The Archdiocese issued a statement Monday defending their handling of Father Dueppen. After the initial affair with Beatrice Hernandez became known three years ago, Father Dueppen was placed on a 13 month leave where he "received professional and spiritual assistance, including his obligation to live faithfully the celibate life and all other aspects of the moral life."
The Archdiocese said Father Dueppen was only assigned to a new church after they received "a favorable professional report and a renewed assurance by Father Dueppen that he was capable and willing to live the celibate life."
Unfortunately, Father Dueppen's assurances of celibacy fell short and he renewed the affair with the woman in 2008 culminating with the birth of their child on January 27th.
Father Dueppen still cannot be reached for comment.
Since the story first broke, the church's response has been to downplay it as much as possible. Asked if anyone from the church had questioned Father Dueppen about the allegations he was the baby's father, a church spokeswoman said the Archdiocese wasn't planning on doing any type of internal investigation and that it had no interest in even contacting Father Dueppen to see if the allegations were true.
Spokeswoman Mary Ross Agosta said the church would leave it up to the legal system to sort out.
Hernandez said she ran into that same attitude when she tried contacting the Archdiocese. She said after she gave birth to her baby and started feeling threatened by Father Dueppen; she contacted the church for help.
"I kept calling and leaving my number," she said. But no one seemed interested.
Hoping to reach Bishop Favalora, she could only get as far as a church secretary.
"I need help," she recalled saying. "Okay, David is getting very violent. I don't know what to do. I'm here with the baby. I'm trying to get help. I need you guys to please help me."
She said after several calls for help, she received her reply.
"`Do not call here anymore!' and she hangs up the phone on me," Hernandez said.
Church spokeswoman Agosta said the only calls the Archdiocese received were a few weeks ago after Dueppen was placed on administrative leave. She described her calls as "incessant and rude."
Hernandez recently filed a restraining order, claiming that an argument over paternity and child support escalated when Dueppen began "grabbing her by the throat and choking her."
Hernandez is scheduled to go to Miami-Dade family court Thursday to seek a permanent restraining order and child support.
CBS4'S Jim DeFede contributed to this report.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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