It Could Take a Month Just to Pick a Jury for Three Priests" Abuse Trial

By Mensah M. Dean
Philadelphia Daily News
February 23, 2012

http://www.philly.com/philly/hp/news_update/140078313.html

TYPICALLY, it does not take trial attorneys a week to read the questionnaires from prospective jurors before ever interviewing those people.

But that's going on this week in the largest courtroom at the Criminal Justice Center, as attorneys and Common Pleas Judge M. Teresa Sarmina lay the groundwork to impanel a jury in the trial of three Philadelphia Catholic priests accused of raping and endangering altar boys beginning in the 1990s.

Sarmina has said that the jury-selection process could take a month.

Jury selection rarely takes more than a day or so. But for a trial that will feature the intersection of two emotionally charged issues - religion and child abuse - taking such a long time to pick a jury is understandable and necessary, said Marita Green, chair of Voice of the Faithful of Greater Philadelphia.

"A lot of people have been touched, swayed and educated by the Catholic Church," said Green, whose Germantown-based group supports survivors of clerical abuse and encourages lay people to get involved with their churches to help prevent child abuse. "You don't want people who are hostile to the church or who've had bad experiences with the church, or people who are so admiring of the church that they cannot believe that bad things happen in the church."

Yesterday, seven defense attorneys for the three defendants and three prosecutors read through 250 multiple-page jury questionnaires and will read 80 more today. So far, 99 people have been selected to be interviewed by the attorneys and the judge starting Monday.

Monsignor William Lynn, 61, secretary for clergy for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia from 1992 to 2004, is charged with two counts of endangering the welfare of a child and two counts of conspiracy.

Prosecutors contend that Lynn failed to do his job of keeping sexually abusive priests away from children. They've said he instead transferred two questionable priests - co-defendants Edward Avery, 69, and James Brennan, 48 - to unsuspecting parishes where they allegedly abused boys. Lynn is the first U.S. Catholic church official charged with aiding sexual-predator priests.

Opening arguments are scheduled for March 26.

The attorneys - who are barred from talking with reporters - were overheard discussing numerous answers from those seeking to duck jury duty in what will likely be a long trial. The responses included a man who was getting married in June and a woman who baby-sits on Mondays.

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