VIP Party Priest David Dueppen Fights with Stripper Over Custody of Love Child

By: Ryan Smith
Topics: Daily Blotter

(Personal Photo)

Photo: David Dueppen and Beatrice Hernandez in happier times.

PEMBROKE PINES, Fla. (CBS/AP) It was romantic, if anything else.

She worked nights as a stripper at a club called Porky's. He worked his days as a Catholic priest — but seemed to have a thing for topless women.

It was a match made in heaven, you might say. Until it ended.

Now the two have a child together.

David Dueppen, a South Florida priest on indefinite leave, is now seeking custody of the child he conceived with his favorite former exotic dancer during their love affair.

The 42-year-old joined the priesthood in 1999. He stepped away this August after Beatrice Hernandez approached the Miami Archdiocese about the child.

Hernandez says she's been Dueppen's on-again, off-again girlfriend for seven years. She met the priest while dancing in the "VIP Lounge" at Porky's under her stage name Lisa.

Dueppen visited the club twice a month, Hernandez says, where he would shed his priest collar and let the good times roll.

Hernandez, 42, provided the court with DNA test results naming Dueppen as the father.

The priest now admits he fathered the child, named Marilyn Epiphany Hernandez, and has asked for 70 percent custody in Miami-Dade Family Court papers filed this week.

Dueppen is a former middle school teacher, and did not become a priest until later in life, looking to "fulfill a spiritual void."

A judge issued a temporary restraining order against Dueppen in the tawdry case after Hernandez claimed he choked her during an argument over paternity and child support. She is looking to make that order permanent and has asked for child support.

Dueppen denies those allegations.

"He is the devil," said Hernandez, "He is the devil dressed as an angel."

What do you think?

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by opinion48 December 21, 2009 8:17 PM EST: It never seizes to amaze me how the lawyers of guilty people will lie, lie, lie. Ofcours, they have to to win the case don't they. That is what they get paid for. Their job is to cast doubt on the credibility of the innocent ones. They don't fool most intelligent folk. OJ was guilty. He killed his wife in a fit of jealous rage. Yeah, he was guilty.; Reply to this comment


by opinion48 December 21, 2009 8:10 PM EST: It sounds like has had an obsession with topless women. I hope she changes her profession and that she gets full custody of the child. If he is violent, he doesn't need to be around the child.; Reply to this comment


by opinion48 December 21, 2009 8:07 PM EST: I believe her. He fathered the child and I'm sure others at the club would recognize him. He never should have been a priest, it wasn't his calling.; Reply to this comment