PHILADLEPHIA (PA)
The Palm Beach Post
By MARYCLAIRE DALE
The Associated Press
Updated: 2:31 p.m. Tuesday, May 22, 2012
PHILADELPHIA — The defense in a groundbreaking child-endangerment trial laid blame for the transfer of predator-priests at the feet of a dead archbishop.
Lawyers for Monsignor William Lynn called two colleagues to the stand Tuesday to try to counter eight weeks of searing evidence from the prosecution. The priests testified that Lynn, as secretary for clergy, never had the authority to remove problem priests or move them to new parishes.
Instead, Lynn could only make recommendations to his superiors, and “ultimately to the cardinal,” Monsignor Joseph P. Garvin testified.
Lynn, 61, served as secretary for clergy from 1992 to 2004, most of it under Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua. Bevilacqua died in January, two months before Lynn went on trial. Prosecutors preserved his testimony in a videotaped deposition late last year, but rested without playing it for jurors.
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