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Jury Labors to Reach Verdict in Philadelphia Church Case

By Dave Warner
The Reuters
June 14, 2012

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/14/us-usa-crime-church-idUSBRE85D17F20120614

Deliberations headed into their eighth day on Thursday in the child sex abuse trial of a Roman Catholic monsignor, with sparks flying in the courtroom and signs of what one attorney called a jury "struggling" to reach a verdict.

Monsignor William Lynn, the highest-ranking church official to stand trial in the wide-ranging pedophilia scandal, is accused of conspiracy and child endangerment.

Prosecutors say in his job overseeing hundreds of priests in the Philadelphia Archdiocese, Lynn covered up child sex abuse allegations, often by transferring priests to unsuspecting parishes.

Also on trial is the Reverend James Brennan, accused of child endangerment and attempted rape of a 14-year-old child in 1996.

Brennan's lawyer on Thursday asked Common Pleas Court Judge M. Teresa Sarmina for a mistrial over her decision on Tuesday to allow the jury to hear testimony from an alleged victim in a 2008 canonical trial that was never submitted into evidence in this trial.

The judge denied the mistrial request by defense attorney William Brennan, noting it should have been filed sooner.

He responded that in "court time," it had only been three hours because court was not in session on Wednesday.

"For you to now take this little arrogant attitude is not really helpful," the judge responded.

The jury has been deliberating since June 1 after hearing 10 weeks of testimony in the case that has rocked the archdiocese, the nation's sixth-largest with 1.5 million members.

"They seem to be struggling," the defense attorney said in court.

The judge rejected a request from jurors to re-hear the complete testimony of three witnesses, telling them: "You are going to have to rely on your memories.

"It is just not possible to redo the trial again," she told them.

Prosecutors say Lynn's motive was to avoid scandal and any potential loss of money for the church. He supervised 800 priests, including investigating sex abuse claims, from 1992 to 2004.

The defense said Lynn tried to handle documented cases of pedophile priests, making a list in 1994 of 35 accused predators and writing memos to suggest treatment and suspensions. He was hampered because he could only make recommendations to the head of the archdiocese, Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, who died in January at age 88, the defense said.

 

 

 

 

 




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