PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS Philly
By Tony Hanson
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — A Philadelphia judge today ruled that evidence of alleged “prior bad acts” can be admitted in the upcoming child sex abuse trial of three Catholic clergymen.
Two priests are charged with abusing boys, and Msgr. William Lynn — a longtime “secretary of clergy” in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia — allegedly endangered children by allowing alleged predator priests to remain in their ministry positions where they could continue to abuse children.
Philadelphia Common Pleas Court judge Teresa Sarmina today ruled admissible what one defense attorney has called “an avalanche of evidence” against the three defendants.
The prosecution will be allowed to present evidence involving nearly two dozen priests, alleging that the archdiocese routinely protected these allegedly abusive priests by shuffling them from parish to parish for decades, and that Msgr. Lynn’s action, or inaction, was part of a pattern of conduct that led to the alleged abuse by the two co-defendants in this case.
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