PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer
By John P. Martin and Joseph A. Slobodzian
Inquirer Staff Writers
The judge in the clergy sex-abuse trial told jurors Thursday that they will not get to rehear days of testimony from crucial witnesses in the case as they requested.
“I know it is a long, long time ago when we started with all the evidence,” Common Pleas Court Judge M. Teresa Sarmina told the seven men and five women on the jury as they began their eighth day of deliberations. “You are going to have to rely on your memory.”
Sarmina ruled after lawyers for the defendants, Msgr. William J. Lynn and the Rev. James J. Brennan, argued that the jury’s request was cumbersome and amounted to retrying the case. In particular, jurors had asked to hear nearly two days of testimony from a man who has accused Brennan of trying to rape him when he was 14, and from the accuser’s mother.
They also sought a read-back of the key witness in the case against Lynn, a former altar boy who claimed he was sexually assaulted in a Northeast Philadelphia church by Edward Avery. Prosecutors say Lynn endangered the boy because he failed to take steps to remove Avery from ministry after another abuse allegation. Avery has pleaded guilty.
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