NEW YORK
The Sun
By LAUREN ELKIES - Staff Reporter of the Sun
January 25, 2006
A Brooklyn priest charged with a series of sexual abuse counts that could have landed him in prison for up to 25 years and required him to register with the state as a sexual offender managed to evade that fate by pleading guilty to a lesser crime of endangering the welfare of a child.
"People register when they're convicted of a sex offense," not when they are charged with one, the head of the Brooklyn district attorney's sex crimes unit, Rhonnie Jaus, said.
The Reverend Joseph Byrns, a 63-year-old Brooklyn Catholic priest on administrative leave, was initially charged with two counts of sexual conduct against a child and 20 counts of sexual abuse for allegedly abusing a boy six times in a church rectory between 2000 and 2002, Ms. Jaus said. After a jury was unable to reach a verdict, Mr. Byrns pleaded guilty Monday to endangering the welfare of a child. He was sentenced to three years' probation and is required to attend a Brooklyn sexual offender treatment program.
Such a stroke of good fortune is not the norm, Ms. Jaus said. "Most sex offenders do plead guilty to sex offenses" and therefore must register, she said.