PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Big Trial
FRIDAY, APRIL 4, 2014
By Ralph Cipriano
for Bigtrial.net
A lawyer for convicted child rapist Bernard Shero is seeking a new trial based on “newly discovered evidence” of contradictory and false statements made by alleged victim “Billy Doe” to his many drug counselors.
Doe, now 26, is the former 10-year-old altar boy who claimed at two historic Philadelphia sex abuse trials that he was raped by two priests as well as Shero, a former Catholic school teacher. It was Doe’s testimony that also sent Msgr. William J. Lynn to jail for 18 months before an appeals court overturned Lynn’s conviction.
The “newly discovered evidence” surfaced during a civil case that Doe has filed against the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.
Doe, a former heroin addict, had been treated at 23 drug rehabs. In the civil case, he’s seeking money for alleged damage to his mental health. So a judge in the civil case has ordered the defendant’s lawyers to turn over Billy Doe’s medical records from the 23 drug rehabs.
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