PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer
By John P. Martin
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
Defense lawyers today asked a judge to consider delaying the looming conspiracy and child sex-abuse trial of two Archdiocese of Philadelphia priests, arguing a surprise guilty plea Thursday by a third defendant drastically altered the case.
The attorneys for Msgr. William J. Lynn and the Rev. James J. Brennan said that broad publicity of Thursday’s plea by defrocked priest Edward Avery could have tainted the jury for their trial.
They asked Common Pleas Court Judge M. Teresa Sarmina to consider picking a new panel or, at the minimum, individually polling jurors before opening statements on Monday to make sure they had not seen the news or could be fair.
“We don’t mind the jury we got,” Jeffrey Lindy, one of Lynn’s lawyers, told the judge. But he said it was unrealistic to believe they had not heard about Avery’s plea or that it would color their view of the other defendants.
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