Jury Pool Grows for Clerics" Sex-abuse Trial

Philadelphia Inquirer
February 24, 2012

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/pennsylvania/140250973.html

Prosecutors and defense lawyers Thursday identified about 100 more potential jurors for next month's child-endangerment and sex-abuse trial of two current Archdiocese of Philadelphia priests and one former archdiocese priest.

By the end of a third day of reviewing juror questionnaires, the lawyers had agreed to call nearly 200 people back for courtroom interviews. The lawyers and Common Pleas Court Judge M. Teresa Sarmina will start those interviews Monday to find 12 jurors and 10 alternates for the trial. The judge also denied a motion by one of the defendants, the Rev. James J. Brennan, for a separate trial.

Brennan and a former priest, Edward Avery, are each charged with molesting a boy in the 1990s. Awaiting trial with them is Msgr. William J. Lynn, a former archdiocesan official accused of endangering children by recommending Brennan and Avery as priests for parish assignments despite knowing or suspecting that they might abuse children. All have pleaded not guilty. - John P. Martin