CALIFORNIA
San Francisco Chronicle
Erin Allday
Updated 10:57 p.m., Wednesday, September 12, 2012
The Santa Clara County district attorney will not charge a priest for lying under oath during the assault trial of William Lynch, when the priest told a jury that he did not molest Lynch and his brother 30 years ago.
District Attorney Jeff Rosen said in a statement Wednesday that he believes retired Catholic priest Jerold Lindner did lie during his brief testimony at the trial in July. But to charge Lindner with perjury, the district attorney’s office would have to prove that Lindner’s testimony was critical to the trial.
Since both the prosecution and the defense teams agreed that Lynch had been molested as a child, Lindner’s denial of the molestation was not a key element of the case, Rosen’s office said. A jury eventually found Lynch not guilty of felony assault and elder abuse and deadlocked on a count of misdemeanor assault.
“We believe that Lindner lied. However, perjury is not merely lying under oath,” Rosen said in a statement. “It is a highly technical criminal offense that requires several elements to be proved.”
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