PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Sacramento Bee
By MARYCLAIRE DALE
Associated Press
Published: Monday, Mar. 19, 2012
PHILADELPHIA — Lawyers for two priests accused of raping boys in the mid-1990s plan to attack the victims’ motives when the landmark trial starts next week in Philadelphia.
Defense lawyers revealed their strategy at a pretrial hearing Monday.
The Rev. James Brennan’s lawyer will tell jurors that his client’s accuser sought the priest out as an adult when he needed to do court-ordered community service.
Defrocked priest Edward Avery’s accuser was expelled from an archdiocesan high school at age 14 and began a long battle with drug addiction.
His lawyer will argue that the accuser hoped to get money from the church and get revenge for the expulsion.
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