CALIFORNIA
Opposing Views
By Michael Flood McNulty, Fri, July 06, 2012
Will Lynch admitted — in court and under oath — to beating a priest who, he says, molested him in 1975. But Santa Clara County, Calif. jurors overlooked this admission and found Lynch not guilty in a sensational trial that pitted sexual abuse victims against the Catholic church and its decades-long cover-up of clergy abuse.
Lynch was accused of assaulting Father Jerold Lindner in a Los Gatos, Calif. retirement home in 2010. Lynch has maintained that Lindner brutally raped him as a seven-year-old boy in 1975. Lynch assaulted the priest 35 years after the fact.
“I was wrong for doing what I did — in doing that I perpetuated the cycle of violence,” Lynch said outside the courtroom. “But if there is anything I want people [who have been molested] to take away from this — it is you can come forward, you can seek justice and you can find justice in many forms.”
According to the Mercury News, defense lawyers in California cannot ask a jury to “nullify,” which is a legal term for ignoring evidence of guilt because a conviction is seen as unfair. Yet, in closing arguments to the jury, Lynch’s attorney Pat Harris said: the prosecution had “overcharged the case” by filing felony charges.”There is a defense to that ‘overzealous’ decision by the prosecution,” Harris had said — “you,” looking at the jurors.
The argument apparently worked.
The Mercury News says: One juror called the rape of Lynch and his brother “heinous, absolutely heinous.” Despite the judge’s admonitions, “(the alleged assault) was a tough thing to disregard,” said the juror, a retired Silicon Valley accountant. “It played a big role in our decision.” The juror was one of the eight who voted to convict Lynch for misdemeanor assault. Lindner testified last month about what he called a “vicious” and painful attack, but the juror said his account was not a factor in their vote. Judge David A. Cena had instructed the jury to ignore Lindner’s testimony, including his denial of the alleged molestation, after the Jesuit refused to answer any more questions on the grounds it might incriminate him.
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