PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer
Joseph A. Slobodzian, Inquirer Staff Writer LAST UPDATED: Tuesday, September 17, 2013
The legal theory underlying the prosecution of the first Catholic church official convicted in the clergy sex-abuse scandal came under attack Tuesday in an appeal hearing before Pennsylvania Superior Court.
Arguing before a three-judge panel in Philadelphia, the lawyer for Msgr. William J. Lynn told the court that Lynn’s 2012 conviction cannot be affirmed under the state’s original child endangerment statute or the amended version enacted in 2007.
The pre-2007 version requires direct, personal supervision of a child, said Lynn’s attorney, Thomas A. Bergstrom. But as the Archdiocese of Philadelphia’s secretary of clergy – responsible for investigating complaints against priests and recommending discipline – Lynn was only a “supervisor of a supervisor,” Bergstrom said.
Bergstrom said the post-2007 law, which enabled prosecution of church officials for crimes committed by priests they supervise cannot be applied to Lynn because he left the secretary of clergy post three years earlier.
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