PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer
By John P. Martin
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
Prosecutors and defense lawyers at the conspiracy and child-sex abuse trial of two Philadelphia priests battled Monday over whether and what jurors can be told about a third defendant who was accused of assaulting multiple boys and pleaded guilty days before the trial began.
That defendant, defrocked priest Edward Avery, was sentenced to 2 ½ to five years in prison after admitting that he sexually assaulted a 10-year-old altar boy in the late 1990s.
Avery also pleaded guilty to conspiring with Msgr. William J. Lynn, the former Archdiocese of Philadelphia official on trial for allegedly endangering children by allowing Avery and another priest, the Rev. James J. Brennan, to live at parishes despite signs they might abuse minors.
The jurors have been told that Avery is no longer a defendant at the trial, but they have not been told why. His guilty plea did not require him to cooperate with investigators or testify at the trial.
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