PARISHIONERS DEFEND PRIEST

Hartford Courant
May 10 2006

By DANIEL E. GOREN, HILDA MUÑOZ And DON STACOM, Courant Staff Writers
NEW BRITAIN — Clara Semerdjian rushed in her car through the rain
to the home of her parish priest and friend of more than a decade.

Semerdjian had come to check on Krikoris Keshishian, 53, the longtime
priest at St. Stephen’s Apostolic Armenian Church on Tremont Street,
who was arrested Tuesday on charges that he molested a 12-year-old
girl.

Word spread quickly in the tightly knit Armenian community that
their patriarch had been accused of a terrible crime. The church’s
parishioners quickly rallied behind their pastor, protesting the
charges and wondering if he was being framed. They said their church,
regardless of what happens in the courts, will be devastated.

Police said Keshishian, of 21 Garry Drive in New Britain,
inappropriately touched the girl while acting in his official
capacity. He is charged with fourth-degree sexual assault and impairing
the morals of child by sexual contact. He was released on a promise
to appear and is scheduled to be arraigned in New Britain on May
23. Fourth-degree sexual assault is a felony punishable by 1 to 5
years in prison.

The charges stem from a single incident in May 2005, but there may
be more counts involving the same victim, said Sgt. Michael Baden.

He said the victim reported the alleged abuse to a family member,
who then called police.

Keshishian, who was aware of the investigation, went to police
headquarters Tuesday morning to be interviewed but did not know he
would be arrested, Baden said.

Keshishian lives with his wife, Arsha, in a two-story house owned by
the church in a quiet suburban neighborhood.

A silver Honda that the church leases for the priest’s use was parked
in his driveway Tuesday. No one answered his front door.

Semerdjian said she could not believe the accusations against her
friend and priest.

“Someone must be trying to do something terrible to him,” she said.

“He is a loving man, a wonderful man, who would give his heart to
anyone. … Something is very wrong with this.”

Parishioner Sophia Hovhannisyan of Berlin said a rumor spread through
the church in the winter but that nobody believes it.

“I heard that story – I think it’s a false statement. That’s
impossible,” Hovhannisyan said Tuesday night. “He is not this man.”

She said she trusts Keshishian with her 15-year-old daughter, Annie,
who is frequently at the church with him.

“I feel she is safe when she is with him,” Hovhannisyan said. “I
don’t believe that happened.”

She said Annie was at the church about six to eight months ago when
a 12-year-old girl fell and Keshishian helped her up.

“My daughter saw it. She said nothing happened. But the girl was
crying, and then crying more after [he picked her up],” she said.

“She was saying something happened, he touched her.”

Hovhannisyan said the girl had only recently joined the church and
never returned.

Hovhannisyan and her husband, Tigran, moved from Armenia with Annie
and their son, Vahe, about 10 years ago. She said she wants to help
Keshishian, but hasn’t been able to talk with him since the arrest.

“He’s like family,” she said. “I called his home, but I can’t find
him or his wife.”

Stephen Kevorkian, 90, and his sister, Shirley Kevorkian, 91, have
been a part of the church since their father helped build it in 1925.

Shirley played the organ at the church for 60 years and said she grew
close with Keshishian after he was hired more than a decade ago from
an Armenian church in Racine, Wisconsin.

Both siblings described Keshishian as a honorable man who would reach
out to help his parishioners. When Stephen Kevorkian had open-heart
surgery in 2001, the siblings said, Keshishian waited with Shirley
Kevorkian at the hospital until doctors said her brother was OK. “We
want to help the man,” Stephen Kevorkian said Tuesday. “Our community
needs to help. His life is finished. His reputation is ruined. Even
if he gets off the charges, the scar will still be there. It is going
to devastate the community.”

“It is going to ruin our church,” Shirely added.

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