Priests’ Lawyers Want to Air Alleged Victims’ Past

By Mensah M. Dean
Philadelphia Daily News
March 19, 2012

http://articles.philly.com/2012-03-19/news/31210984_1_defrocked-priest-accuser-william-brennan

Two of the three Catholic priests who will go on trial next week in the clergy-child-abuse case are themselves being victimized by their troubled accusers, defense lawyers said today during a pretrial hearing.

The two former altar boys who allege that they were raped in the 1990s by Rev. James Brennan, 48, and defrocked priest Edward Avery, 69, are longtime drug addicts with criminal records who have made false allegations hoping to improve their situations, lawyers for the two priests said.

They asked Common Pleas Judge M. Teresa Sarmina to allow them to tell the jury about what they believe to be the alleged victims' motivations.

Sarmina is expected to make a ruling tomorrow.

Brennan's accuser has not just been a drug abuser with a criminal record, said the priest's attorney, William Brennan, but he also chose to do court-mandated community service with the priest years after the alleged rape.

Attorney Brennan - who is not related to his client - said the jury needs to hear about this so it will be clear the accuser sought out the priest.

"Of all the places he could have gone [to do community service] he seeks out his alleged abuser . . . That has to come in. If it does not I am completely emasculated in my ability to cross-examine," attorney Brennan argued.

Avery's attorney Michael Wallace argued that his client's accuser likely developed a heroin addiction after being kicked out of Archbishop Ryan High School for drugs and a weapon in his 2001 freshman year, the same year his beloved grandmother died.

Wallace said the man is now making his accusations to get back at the school and because he hopes to profit from a civil lawsuit he's filed against the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

"This is the sum and substance of the defense of Father Ed Avery," Wallace said.

A team of city prosecutors pushed back, arguing that the two men's past transgressions are not relevant to the charges the defendants are facing and should be kept out of the trial.

"It's completely irrelevant, and irrelevant evidence is not admissible," Assistant District Attorney Mark Cipolletti said of the past of Rev. Brennan's accuser.

"There's no connection, no nexus, it's a further shot in the dark to sully someone," said Patrick Blessington, the chief of special investigations for the D.A.'s Office.

Also to be tried is Monsignor William Lynn, 61, who is charged with endangering the welfare of a child and conspiracy for allegedly failing to prevent dangerous priests from preying on church children. The trial is scheduled to begin Monday.

Contact Mensah M. Dean at 215-568-8278 or deanm@phillynews.com