PENNSYLVANIA
Record Searchlight
By The Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA (AP) – A former Philadelphia church official will be retried next year over his handling of priest-abuse complaints even though his child-endangerment conviction has twice been overturned.
Monsignor William Lynn will face a pared-down trial May 1, after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court faulted the trial judge for allowing weeks of testimony from 21 victims to show the alleged cover-up by the Roman Catholic church.
The court found that testimony prejudiced the jury against Lynn, who was charged with endangering a single boy abused by a problem priest transferred to his parish in the late 1990s.
Lynn, 65, returned to court Thursday, two days after leaving prison, but did not speak at the brief hearing. The defense hoped prosecutors would drop the case, given that he’s served all but three months of his three-year sentence. But Lynn has emerged as a pivotal test case in the move to hold church and institutional leaders responsible for protecting pedophiles.
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