By Sean Webby
Mercury News
October 30, 2010
http://www.mercurynews.com/crime-courts/ci_16470418?source=most_emailed&nclick_check=1
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| William Lynch, 44, is accused of beating the retired... (Santa Clara County Sheriff's Department) |
William Lynch made a trip in May to the Sacred Heart Jesuit Center in Los Gatos to see the Rev. Jerold Lindner again.
"Do you remember me?" he asked the 65-year-old Jesuit priest.
"You abused me and my brother."
Then, police reports continue, the 44-year-old Lynch began punching Lindner, pummeling the older man so badly that he was hospitalized, his body covered in bruises.
The beating may have been prophetic. In a 2002 interview with the Mercury News, he said his rage at Lindner for molesting the Lynch brothers when they were young children was so great, "I could kill him with my bare hands."
Lynch was booked Friday on suspicion of assault by means of force likely to produce great bodily injury, a felony, and bail was set at $25,000. There is no scheduled arraignment.
The San Francisco resident could not be reached for comment.
The attack comes at a time when the Catholic Church has finally started to publicly accept responsibility for the abuse after decades of stonewalling and protecting the accused priests. Even so, such violent retribution against abusive priests is rare.
Pat Harris, Lynch's Los Angeles lawyer, had no comment about the alleged revenge attack, which came more than three decades after the reported sexual abuse. Lynch and his brother sued in 1997 and reportedly received a $625,000 settlement from the Jesuits.
But Harris said his client, who this week filed an unusual federal civil
lawsuit against the Vatican, accusing it of being complicit in his abuse, was still furious at the priest: "Of course, he's angry. Every single one of them who was abused by any priest is angry. My client, as well as the other victims in this case, laments the fact that this priest was never prosecuted despite overwhelming evidence.''
Lynch and his brother, who were 7 and 5 at the time of the alleged abuse, have said they were raped and forced to have oral sex with each other during camping trips to Portola State Park while Lindner -- a spiritual adviser at the Christian camp -- looked on. Lindner has been accused of abuse by nearly a dozen people, including his own sister and brother.
The latest lawsuit alleges that Lindner's pedophilia was well-known among his superiors and that they wrote a memo that said his long record of molestations going back to the 1950s should be kept "internal to the Society of Jesus." Still, he was never criminally prosecuted.
The retired priest's condition after the spring attack was unclear Friday, and he could not be reached for comment.
Experts in clergy abuse said that such vigilante attacks are rare.
"The overwhelming majority of victims turn their pain inward and hurt themselves,'' said David Clohessy, executive national director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP. "This is just tragic on every level. Violence is always wrong, and yet I certainly understand the frustration of a victim whose life is devastated while church officials continue to shield and protect and pay and coddle."
The local attack reportedly happened May 10, when Lynch called the Jesuit retirement home, identifying himself as "Eric." He pretended to have a "death notification" for the elderly priest, officials said.
After Lynch fled, sheriff's deputies were called. Lynch was reportedly interviewed by deputies Oct. 18.
Soon afterward, Lynch's surrender was arranged through his attorney.
Santa Clara County sheriff's deputies said they suspected Lynch soon after the attack, but could not confirm he was the main suspect until they processed phone records.
Even then, they said the prosecutor sent the case back to them for further investigation before issuing a warrant this week.
In 2002, Lynch told the Mercury News that he has suffered decades of psychological trauma and even attempted suicide due to his abuse. The priest, he said, told them they would go to hell if they told anyone what happened.
Lindner was removed from active ministry in Los Angeles in 1997 in response to the Lynch civil lawsuit, and was reportedly sent to the South Bay Jesuit Center in 2002.
Three years ago, Jesuit officials reportedly settled Lindner's and other abuse cases filed by 550 plaintiffs for $660 million.
An Associated Press report quoted Lindner's brother, a retired Los Angeles police officer, as saying that he last saw his brother more than two decades ago, after he walked in on his sibling molesting his 8-year-old daughter during a visit.
"The last contact I had with him personally was the day after I caught him with my daughter, and I told him he best get in his vehicle and leave," the brother was quoted as saying. "I said, 'If I go out to the truck and get my off-duty weapon out of the glove box, you're a dead man."
Contact Sean Webby at 408-920-5003 or swebby@mercurynews.com
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