PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer
By John P. Martin
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
After calling nearly 50 witnesses and presenting close to 1,900 pieces of evidence, Philadelphia prosecutors rested their case Thursdau in the landmark trial over child sex-abuse by Archdiocese of Philadelphia priests.
The prosecution ended by letting jurors handle what they contend is the closest thing to a smoking gun in the case: a tattered gray folder that had been squirreled away in a locked safe at archdiocesan offices for more than a decade.
Inside were hand-written and typed documents, including a now infamous list that Msgr. William J. Lynn drafted in 1994 naming about three dozen archdiocesan priests who had admitted or were accused of sexual misconduct with children or teens.
Assistant District Attorney Patrick Blessington and Detective Joseph Walsh also gave jurors a timeline of significant points in Lynn’s tenure as secretary for clergy, noting that he told a grand jury in 2004 that he couldn’t find the list.
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