PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer
By John P. Martin
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
The judge presiding over the child-endangerment trial of a former high-ranking monsignor in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia said today she would not step down from the case, rejecting defense attorneys’ claims her public comments suggested she was biased against the church.
The defense “took the court’s statement completely out of context,” Common Pleas Court Judge M. Teresa Sarmina said at a pretrial hearing.
The attorneys for Msgr. William J. Lynn had asked the judge last week to recuse herself, citing a remark she made during a pretrial conference last month.
During courtroom conversations over a proposed jury questionnaire, Sarmina rejected a question from defense lawyers that would have asked prospective jurors if they believed child-sex abuse was a wide problem in the church, adding, “Anyone that doesn’t think there was widespread sexual abuse within the Catholic Church is living on another planet.”
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