PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Big Trial
By Ralph Cipriano
for Bigtrial.net
The Superior Court of Pennsylvania today reversed the “historic” conviction of Msgr. William J. Lynn on one count of endangering the welfare of a child.
The court said the “plain language” of the state’s 1972 child endangerment law required that Lynn had to be “a supervisor of an endangered child victim” in order to be convicted of the third-degree felony of endangering the welfare of a child. Lynn, however, never even met Billy Doe, the former 10-year-old altar boy who was the alleged victim in the case.
In a 43-page opinion, the Superior Court said Judge M. Teresa Sarmina’s decision to allow the conviction of Lynn under the state’s original child endangerment law was “fundamentally flawed.”
“It’s just absolutely wonderful,” said Thomas A. Bergstrom, Lynn’s defense lawyer. The Superior Court opinion showed “this whole prosecution was totally dishonest from day one,” Bergstrom said of District Attorney Seth Williams and his staff. “They had to know that that statute didn’t apply to Lynn. And their attempt to justify it just doesn’t wash.”
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