Philly Archdiocese Helps Monsignor Post $250k Bail

By Maryclaire Dale
Bellingham Herald
December 31, 2013

http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2013/12/31/3398217/pa-monsignor-surrenders-passport.html

FILE - In this March 27, 2012 file photo, Monsignor William Lynn leaves the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia. A judge has set bail on Monday, Dec. 30, 2013, at $250,000 for Lynn, a Roman Catholic priest whose conviction in the clergy sex abuse scandal was overturned by a Pennsylvania appeals court. Lynn has been serving a three- to six-year sentence after being the first church official ever convicted over his handling of abuse claims.

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia on Tuesday provided the bail needed to release a former church official who has been imprisoned for 18 months in the clergy-abuse scandal.

Monsignor William Lynn's attorneys posted the required 10 percent of the $250,000 bail after a state appeals court last week overturned his conviction for child endangerment. Lynn was expected to be released later this week after electronic monitoring can be arranged.

Lynn became the first U.S. church official ever convicted for his handling of abuse claims and was sent to prison in July 2012 for three to six years. But the mid-level appeals court found that the child-endangerment felony didn't apply to him, because he did not directly supervise children when he served as the archdiocese's secretary for clergy from 1992 to 2004. The law was changed in 2007.

Lawyers for Lynn also surrendered his passport, another bail condition.

Ken Gavin, a spokesman for the archdiocese, said the church "assisted" with the $25,000 needed to post bail, while prosecutors say the archdiocese supplied the full amount.

As a condition of his release, Lynn must live in Philadelphia while prosecutors ask the state Supreme Court to restore his conviction. Lawyers did not immediately know where he would be staying.

Gavin said it was too soon to know if or when Lynn might return to ministry. Lynn last worked as the pastor of St. Joseph's Parish in suburban Downingtown.

Lynn, who turns 63 on Sunday, has spent most of his incarceration at Waymart, a state prison in northeast Pennsylvania with dormitory-style housing. His lawyers say he has held up well.

The appeal to the state Supreme Court could be a long process. Prosecutors have until the end of Jan. 25 to file their petition asking the high court to hear the case. It could take another few months, or more, for the court to decide whether to take it up.

District Attorney Seth Williams, who pursued the novel child-endangerment charges against the church administrator, said Tuesday that he's "shocked and dismayed that the Archdiocese" helped Lynn get out of jail, adding that it sends "a horrible message today to all sexual abuse victims."

Williams previously called the Superior Court's unanimous, three-judge decision "disappointing and puzzling."

"The evidence at trial showed that Lynn ... methodically and deliberately distributed dangerous pedophiles around the Delaware Valley like time bombs," he said Monday. "The way the Superior Court panel read this law is not how this law is supposed to work."

Defense lawyer Thomas Bergstrom called the appeal "a fool's errand."

"A lot of it's rhetoric," he said after Monday's bail hearing. "The single charge he was convicted of has now been reversed. He's been ordered to be freed."