PHILADELPHIA (PA)
NBC 10
By Maryclaire Dale
Tuesday, Jun 12, 2012
An apparently frustrated defense lawyer on the seventh day of jury deliberations in a groundbreaking clergy-abuse case scolded the judge and, outside the Philadelphia courtroom, slammed his cellphone against a wall.
Jurors are deliberating on the fate of Roman Catholic priest James Brennan and the monsignor who supervised him. The jury’s frequent requests to re-hear testimony or get help interpreting the law led defense lawyer William Brennan to explode in court Tuesday.
“They have to do their jobs,” insisted William Brennan, who is no relation to his client James Brennan. “They have to rely on their recollections. We can’t do their jobs.”
As the judge contemplated allowing jurors to hear the priest’s accuser’s testimony from a 2008 church trial, William Brennan strenuously objected and got testy. He argued against reading the testimony to the jury, which spent about two hours in court Monday hearing the priest’s testimony from his canonical trial for a second time. He said jurors also shouldn’t be allowed to hear — again — the accuser’s two days of trial testimony.
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