PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer
By Joseph A. Slobodzian
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
A Philadelphia judge this morning denied a motion for bail pending appeal for Msgr. William J. Lynn, the former Archdiocese of Philadelphia church official convicted of child endangerment in the recent clergy sex abuse trial.
Common Pleas Court Judge M. Teresa Sarmina rejected the motion by defense attorneys Jeffrey Lindy and Alan Tauber after a 15-minute sometimes-acrimonious hearing at the city’s Criminal Justice Center.
“I’m denying the motion based on the serious nature of the conduct Msgr. Lynn committed,” Sarmina said. …
Lynn’s attorneys argued that he should be released on bail pending appeal because there is “better than a 50-50 chance” that the state Superior Court will find the prosecution’s extension of the child endangerment statute improper in charging a church official who acted solely in a supervisory role.
Assistant District Attorney Patrick Blessington argued that, under state criminal court rules, a criminal defendant convicted and sentenced to more than two years in prison has no right to bail.
Shortly after he was sentenced, city prison officials transferred Lynn from the city’s Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility in the Northeast to the state prison in Graterford, Montgomery County. He then went to Camp Hill.
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