Corpun file 24421 at www.corpun.com

New York Post, 6 April 2013

It's all about the money

Wacky worship

Flogged, outcast as pagan 'lord'

By M.L. Nestel

(extracts)

Photos: Facebook GETTING MEDIEVAL: Councilman Dan Halloran (above center) joins in rites as part of his Theodist religion.

The city councilman who bungled his way into federal bribery charges is also a total bonehead in his kooky heathen religion -- whose members wear medieval garb, make sacrifices to multiple gods and compete in combat games.

Dan Halloran (R-Queens) -- who was arrested Tuesday as the suspected bag man in state Sen. Malcolm Smith's alleged plot to buy his way onto the mayoral ticket -- has been publicly flogged and lost a spear-throwing contest as part of his Theodish punishments.

Halloran converted in the 1980s from Catholicism to the pre-Christian Germanic religion, whose believers drink mead or whiskey from horns and dress like characters in a Renaissance fair.

He learned about their tough disciplinary code when he committed an undisclosed act against a female "thrall" -- or probationary servant.

He was stripped to his waist, strapped to a tree and flogged with a belt 11 times.

Fellow member Nick Ritter refused to discuss the episode, but said the punishment fit the crime.

"He was given a choice," Ritter said. "He was going to leave Theodism or stay and pay the piper."

The then-married defense lawyer made his way up the Theodish ladder through the years and in 1997 was asked by "sacred king" Garman Lord to ditch his rank and join the splinter group Winland Rice.

Click to enlarge

Halloran wanted a rare exemption from the year of servitude as a thrall that the religion required.

[...]

FBI agents arrested Halloran in a predawn raid on Tuesday on a raft of corruption charges,

He was caught on wiretaps allegedly bribing two city GOP bosses to get Smith, a Democrat, on the Republican mayoral ballot.

"You can't get anything without the f--king money. Money is what greases the wheels -- good, bad or indifferent," he said on one recording.

Halloran faces up to 45 years in prison if convicted.

He also could face a "religious trial," where he could be fined and thrown of the Troth -- a Connecticut-based Theodish organization which the pol has been affiliated with for the past decade.

Halloran lists himself as "counsel" for the Troth on his LinkedIn page, but the group distanced itself from the pol in a statement.

"Mr. Halloran is currently officially recognized as an Elder and Clergyman of the Troth, but he has been neither active nor involved with our organization for several years ... If Mr. Halloran is convicted on these charges, then established Troth disciplinary procedures will be enacted, as Troth clergy are held to a very high standard," the statement said.

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