PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer
[with video]
JOSEPH A. SLOBODZIAN, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
LAST UPDATED: Wednesday, March 12, 2014
A Philadelphia judge Wednesday declared a mistrial in the sexual-assault case against the Rev. Andrew McCormick after a tired, despondent-looking jury said it was hopelessly deadlocked.
Common Pleas Court Judge Gwendolyn N. Bright’s late-afternoon ruling came an hour after she urged the jury of nine women and three men to try once more to resolve their differences and reach a unanimous verdict.
“Nothing has changed since your last charge,” read the forewoman’s note to the judge. “We are still deadlocked. Discussions have ceased.”
After the jurors were dismissed, Assistant District Attorney Kristen Kemp told Bright she would retry the 57-year-old Catholic priest on charges he sexually assaulted a 10-year-old altar boy in 1997 in the priest’s rectory bedroom at St. John Cantius church in Bridesburg.
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