Priest Takes Guilty Plea in Abuse Case

My Fox Philly
March 22, 2012

http://www.myfoxphilly.com/dpp/news/local_news/priest-takes-guilty-plea-in-abuse-case

Fox 29 has learned that one of two priests set to go on trial in the Philadelphia Archdiocese abuse case has taken a guilty plea.

Defrocked priest Edward Avery entered the plea on Thursday afternoon.

He was sentenced to 2 1/2 to 5 years in prison.

He pleaded guilty to abuse of a 10-year-old boy at St Jerome's Parish.

Avery, 69, was charged with sexually assaulting the man in the 1990s.

Fr. James Brennan will still go on trial later this month along with co-defendant Monsignor William Lynn.

Lynn is the first U.S. church official charged for allegedly keeping accused priests in ministry.

A key witness in the case, Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, died of natural causes in January.

In the Philadelphia grand jury presentment, Avery, former teacher Bernard Shero and the Rev. Charles Engelhardt, were charged with raping the same altar boy at St. Jerome's.

Shero and Engelhardt face separate trials in September and have pleaded not guilty.

The landmark trial of Lynn and Brennan is still expected to start on Monday in Philadelphia.