PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Daily News
DAVID GAMBACORTA, DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER GAMBACD@PHILLYNEWS.COM, 215-854-5994
POSTED: Friday, December 27, 2013
MONSIGNOR William Lynn received a belated Christmas gift yesterday from the Superior Court of Pennsylvania: a get-out-of-jail-free card.
A three-judge appeals panel overturned Lynn’s 2012 conviction of felony child endangerment for his questionable oversight of Edward Avery, a now-defrocked priest from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia who pleaded guilty in 2012 of sexually assaulting an altar boy in 1998.
Lynn, 62, who served as the archdiocese’s secretary for clergy, has spent the last 18 months behind bars as part of a three- to six-year sentence.
He was the first Roman Catholic Church official in the U.S. to be convicted of a crime connected to abuse allegations against the clergy.
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