Prosecutors Appeal Monsignor Lynn’s Overturned Conviction
CBS Philly: “The District Attorney’s Office in Philadelphia has announced it is appealing the decision to overturn the conviction of a Philadelphia church official charged with shielding pedophile priests. Earlier this month, Monsignor William Lynn was released from state prison, where he’d been housed for 18 months after being charged with child endangerment for reassigning sexually abusive priests to other parishes instead reporting them to law enforcement.”
Inquirer: “The Superior Court panel agreed with Lynn’s attorney, Thomas A. Bergstrom, that Lynn’s 2012 conviction cannot be affirmed under the original child endangerment law or the amended version enacted in 2007. Bergstrom argued that the pre-2007 version requires direct personal supervision of a child. 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.”
However, prosecutors appealed that Superior Court ruling Monday to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
“The message sent by the Superior Court’s published opinion in this high-profile case is therefore a dismal one — victims of child sexual assault at the hands of pedophile priests who reluctantly come forward may do so in vain,“ Assistant District Attorney Hugh J. Burns Jr. wrote in the 39-page appeal brief.
