Priest Asks to Be Spared Prison

By Erik Eckholm
New York Times
July 19, 2012

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/20/us/monsignor-lynn-asks-to-be-spared-prison.html?_r=1

Lawyers for Msgr. William J. Lynn of Philadelphia, the first senior official in the Roman Catholic Church in the United States to be convicted of failing to prevent child sex abuse by priests under his supervision, asked on Thursday that he be spared prison, arguing that a lengthy sentence "would be merely cruel and unusual."

On June 22, after a landmark trial revealed efforts by the Philadelphia Archdiocese to conceal evidence of abuses, Monsignor Lynn was convicted on one count of endangering a child, which carries a maximum sentence of seven years. His bail was revoked and he has been in jail while awaiting sentencing, which is scheduled for Tuesday.

"Monsignor Lynn has never harbored any intent to harm a child," wrote his lawyers, Thomas Bergstrom and Jeff Lindy, in a memo to Judge M. Teresa Sarmina of Common Pleas Court, and a lengthy incarceration "would serve no purpose at all."

The district attorney's office is expected to file a memo Friday asking for the maximum sentence.