Philadelphia DA Challenges New Trial for Lynn

By Max Mitchell
Legal Intelligencer
December 29, 2015

http://www.thelegalintelligencer.com/id=1202745885987/Philadelphia-DA-Challenges-New--Trial-for-Lynn?slreturn=20151129063044

The Philadelphia district attorney has asked for reconsideration of an appellate court’s recent decision to vacate the conviction of Monsignor William J. Lynn, the first Catholic Church administrative official convicted of endangering the welfare of children abused by other priests.

District Attorney R. Seth Williams announced Monday that he filed an application to have a nine-member en banc panel of the Superior Court hear reargument of numerous issues on appeal in the case.

Although Lynn, who had served as secretary for clergy for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, had been convicted under an earlier version of Pennsylvania’s law criminalizing endangerment of the welfare of children, a split three-judge panel of the Superior Court overturned that conviction Dec. 22. Along with reversing Lynn’s sentence of three to six years’ incarceration, the ruling in Commonwealth v. Lynn remanded Lynn’s case for a new trial.

The majority opinion, written by Judge John T. Bender, had said the trial court had admitted a “high volume of unfairly prejudicial other-acts evidence.”

During a press conference Monday announcing the decision, Williams said the trial court properly admitted the evidence, which focused on 21 other priests who were not directly related to Lynn’s conviction.

“It’s ironic that using all of the evidence was in fact too much evidence,” Williams said.

In the petition, Williams also argued the panel improperly re-weighed the evidence, and prosecutors had to introduce the evidence of numerous previous bad acts to establish a “firm basis” to establish motive and similar mental states.

According to court papers, Lynn had ­supervised priest Edward Avery, who ­molested a 10-year-old altar boy.

Lynn was convicted under a version of the child endangerment law that did not specifically indicate that it extended to ­someone who employs or supervises parents, ­guardians or supervisors.

In December 2013, the Superior Court reversed Lynn’s conviction as insufficiently supported by the evidence, concluding he was not a “supervisor” within the meaning of the child endangerment law.

The state Supreme Court, however, reversed that ruling in April, saying the statute was clear, and Lynn had been charged with supervising the children’s welfare.

Lynn spent 18 months in jail, and was placed on house arrest after the Superior Court reversed his conviction. Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge M. Teresa Sarmina, however, sent him back to prison after revoking his bail in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to reinstate his conviction.

Following the Superior Court’s latest decision vacating Lynn’s sentence, Lynn’s attorney, Thomas A. Bergstrom of Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney, filed ­motions seeking a bail hearing and the recusal of Sarmina.

According to Bergstrom, Williams’ ­petition for reargument temporarily puts those motions on hold. Bergstrom said the petition and the arguments were not a surprise. He said he plans to file a response within 14 days.

In the district attorney’s petition, which was filed by appeals chief Hugh Burns Jr., Williams further contended that arguments about the individual weight of each piece of bad-acts evidence had not been preserved, briefed or argued, and instead were raised sua sponte by the majority.

The petition also noted that the panel’s latest decision addressed only one of the 10 issues Lynn raised on appeal, and asked that the court review all remaining ­appellate issues.

Noting that the Supreme Court remanded the case after the same Superior Court panel previously ruled on only one of the appellate issues, Williams said he is seeking the more extensive review in an effort to avoid the same situation ­happening again.

“Should this court’s decision in this case be reviewed and reversed by the Supreme Court again, it would be necessary to remand, yet again, for resolution of defendant’s remaining claims,” the filing said. “Presumably this could occur eight more times until there were no issues left, a process that could extend beyond the rest of the decade.”

The bad-acts evidence that formed the basis for the Superior Court’s findings was composed of allegations leveled against 21 priests other than Avery and James Brennan, a priest who had been a co-defendant with Lynn, and evidence indicating the archdiocese bungled responses to abuse allegations.

According to Lynn, 25 days of the 32-day trial were spent on evidence directly detailing facts about the other priests. Some of that material dated as far back as the 1940s, he said.

Although prosecutors said the evidence was probative, Bender said the sheer volume of evidence was a problem.

“The other-acts evidence dominated appellant’s trial to such a degree that we are unable to conclude that the jury could have dutifully followed the court’s instruction, which effectively demanded that the jury ignore the elephant in the room,” Bender said.

Judge Christine L. Donohue wrote a concurring and dissenting opinion saying the majority improperly reweighed other-acts evidence.

Senior Judge John L. Musmanno joined Bender’s decision.

The Superior Court has 60 days to determine whether or not it will hear reargument in the case.