PENNSYLVANIA
Big Trial
TUESDAY, JULY 26, 2016
By Ralph Cipriano
for BigTrial.net
Msgr. William J. Lynn, the central figure in the prosecution of the Philadelphia archdiocese for sex abuse, is a free man.
That’s because today, the state Supreme Court, in a one-page decision, announced it would not review a second reversal of Lynn’s conviction by the state Superior Court.
After serving 33 months in jail, and 15 months under house arrest, Lynn could be on a bus to Philadelphia as early as tomorrow.
“It’s been a long time coming,” said Thomas A. Bergstrom, Lynn’s lawyer. “We’ll file a bail motion first thing in the morning.”
Lynn, the former secretary for clergy for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia from 1992 to 2004, was convicted in 2012 on one count of endangering the welfare of a child. He was sentenced to three to six years in jail by the trial judge in the case. M. Teresa Sarmina.
The alleged victim in the case, however, was Danny Gallagher, aka “Billy Doe,” who had all kinds of credibility problems, as recounted in a Jan. 29th Newsweek cover story headlined “Catholic Guilt: The Lying, Scheming Altar Boy Behind A Lurid Rape Case.”
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