PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Priest Abuse Trial Blog
[Part 1]
Ralph Cipriano
Taleah Grimmage, Juror No. 7, has finally explained why that not guilty verdict on the conspiracy charge against Msgr. Lynn left her with knots in her stomach.
Every juror believed Lynn was part of a conspiracy at the archdiocese, Juror No. 7 explained in an email posted on this website. It just wasn’t the conspiracy that the prosecutors thought was there.
In subsequent emails, Grimmage elaborated on her complicated views about Msgr. Lynn. Yes he was just a “yes man,” she said, but he was also the guy left holding the bag for the archdiocese.
I’d like to publicly thank Taleah for providing invaluable insights into jury deliberations. Here’s what she posted about the conspiracy verdict:
Hi everyone, This is Taleah Grimmage (Juror #7). I stated before that my stomach was in knots about the conspiracy charge because, almost every single juror believed that there was a conspiracy. We just didn’t believe that the conspiracy was to endanger children.
I specifically requested that the foreman send out a question (which he did) asking if the result of a conspiracy was that a child was endangered, did the endangerment also have to be the intent. Judge Sarmina told us that it did, which made it nearly impossible to convict, with the elements that we were given of conspiracy.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.