Los Gatos Priest Beating Case Trial Date Now Changed to June
By Sheila Sanchez
Friday's scheduled pretrial motions in the case against a San Francisco man accused of beating a priest at the Los Gatos Sacred Heart Jesuit Center in May of 2010 have been postponed until 9 a.m., May 3. William Lynch, 44, has been arraigned on one count of felony assault with intent to cause great bodily injury and one count of elder abuse under circumstances likely to produce great bodily harm or death. He has pleaded not guilty to both charges. The scheduled hearing was changed since presiding Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge David Cena is tied up with a homicide trial that is running longer than expected. The pretrial motions hearing, a time for any legal issue that will arise during the high-profile trial to be addressed by the prosecution and the defense, will be followed by jury selection May 14. The presentation of the evidence is expected to start on or around June 19, instead of the earlier reported date of May 29, said Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney Gemetti. Jury selection will be performed using jury questionnaires with potential jurors being called in to court and given the document to fill out and then reviewed by the attorneys. Counsel will then meet and discuss which jurors need to be questioned for so-called "cause," necessary in every trial to weed down the full veneer of potential jurors to the 12 jurors and alternates who will sit on the case, explained Gemetti. Attorneys will question the jurors for any biases or any impediments to sit for "cause," such as someone having been convicted of a similar crime or who may have a family member working in the DA's office or law enforcement and their objectivity is compromised. After the panel has been passed for cause, meaning there are no legal reasons why the jurors can't sit on the case, each attorney will have 10 pre-emptory challenges that can be exercised and they'll go back and forth to determine which jurors will be sworn in, Gemetti added. The proceedings are taking place in Judge Cena's courtroom, department 34 of the Santa Clara County Hall of Justice in San Jose. "Once we've sworn the jury in ... we're going to stick to that schedule to the best of our abilities," Gemetti said about the delays in the trial start date. "Obviously trials are fluid and things may change and emergencies do happen, but ... once we have those 12 people and they're told the dates, things won't change too much." The questionnaire presented to the jurors will probably be several pages long containing a list of questions and topics, some inquiries from the court and some submitted by the defense and the prosecution. Lynch is being represented by Pat Harris and Mark Geragos, with the Los Angeles-based law firm of Geragos & Geragos. Authorities say he walked into the center's reception area the afternoon of May 10, 2010 and asked to speak to Father Jerold Lindner. He said he had a death notification about a member of the priest's family and then allegedly assaulted him. The case is being closely watched by critics of the Roman Catholic Church who allege Lindner raped and sodomized Lynch and his brother when they were small boys in the '70s while on camping trips. If a jury convicts Lynch, he's could serve a maximum of four years in state prison. The court, however, could grant him probation and give him up to one year in county jail, Gemetti said. "We have been ready for trial for quite some time," Gemetti said. "I'm quite anxious to get the matter proceeding."
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