Priest Convicted of Covering up Abuse Claims

By Maryclaire Dale
U-T San Diego
June 23, 2012

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/jun/23/tp-priest-convicted-of-covering-up-abuse-claims/

A Roman Catholic church official was convicted of child endangerment but acquitted of conspiracy Friday in a landmark clergy-abuse trial, making him the first U.S. church official branded a felon for covering up abuse claims.

Monsignor William Lynn helped the archdiocese keep predators in the ministry, and the public in the dark, by telling parishes their priests were being removed for health reasons and then sending the men to unsuspecting churches, prosecutors said.

Lynn, 61, served as secretary for clergy from 1992 to 2004, mostly under Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua.

“Many in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia hierarchy had dirty hands,” Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams said. Williams said he didn’t have sufficient evidence last year to charge other officials, including Bevilacqua, who died in January at age 88. Lynn had faced about 10 to 20 years in prison if convicted of all three counts he faced — conspiracy and two counts of child endangerment. He was convicted of a single endangerment count, which carries a possible 3?- to seven-year prison term.

The jury could not reach a verdict for Lynn’s co-defendant, the Rev. James Brennan, accused of sexually abusing a 14-year-old boy in 1999. Despite Lynn’s acquittal on the conspiracy charge, the trial exposed how deeply involved the late cardinal was in dealing with accused priests. Bevilacqua had the final say on what to do with priests accused of abuse, transferred many of them to new parishes and dressed down anyone who complained, according to testimony.

Lynn didn’t react when the verdict was read, or acknowledge the siblings and other friends and relatives who have accompanied him to court for much of the three-month trial. Several were weeping.

The judge revoked his bail and he was taken to jail, although his lawyers plan to ask on Monday he be granted house arrest until sentencing. No date was set, but the judge set an Aug. 13 presentencing hearing. The defense also pledged to appeal the conviction. “He’s upset. He’s crushed. He’s in custody and he was the administrator who didn’t touch a child and had only limited authority,” defense lawyer Jeffrey M. Lindy said.

With the verdict, after 13 days of deliberations, jurors concluded prosecutors failed to show that Lynn was part of a conspiracy to move predator priests around.

The jury, however, did find Lynn endangered the victim of defrocked priest Edward Avery, who pleaded guilty before trial to a 1999 sexual assault. Lynn had deemed Avery “guilty” of an earlier complaint on the 1994 list, and helped steer him into an inpatient treatment program run by the archdiocese. But Lynn knew Avery later was sent to live in a northeast Philadelphia parish, where the altar boy was assaulted. The victim alleges he was also assaulted by another priest and his Catholic-school teacher. They’re expected to be tried later this year.

After the verdict, the archdiocese apologized to clergy-abuse victims and said the church was on a “journey of reform and renewal that requires honesty and hope.”

More than 500 U.S. Roman Catholic priests have been convicted of abuse charges, according to an abuse support group. Lynn is the first church official to be convicted of administrative actions.