Detroit: Defrocking A Fraud

As bereaved relatives huddled in shock and grief at Detroit Metropolitan Airport last month after the Northwest Airlines crash that killed 156 people, the Rev. John Irish, a Roman Catholic priest, was on hand to console them. And, apparently, to con them. Last week Detroit authorities said that Irish, who was dressed in a black suit and clerical collar, was actually a veteran ambulance chaser posing as a priest to steer business to a Florida lawyer named Ronald Brimmell. Says Wayne County Sheriff Robert Ficano: "He would try to win the confidence of victims' families, and then say, 'I have this friend who is an attorney . . .' "

Ficano said the good father has been observed at disaster sites in at least seven other states. Although Irish has not been charged with a crime and Brimmell denies using anyone to solicit business, Detroit authorities are investigating whether the "priest" committed fraud.