Pa. Monsignor Seeks Probation in Landmark Case

By Maryclaire Dale
ABC News
July 19, 2012

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/pa-monsignor-seeks-probation-landmark-case-16811327#.UAgv8fXYKYs

The first U.S. church official convicted of endangering children in the priest-abuse scandal asked Thursday for a sentence of house arrest or probation, calling a long prison term "cruel and unusual."

Monsignor William Lynn, 61, of Philadelphia awaits sentencing Tuesday.

Lynn, the former secretary for clergy at the city's Roman Catholic archdiocese, handled priest assignments and child sexual-assault complaints from 1992 to 2004.

He faces up to seven years in prison after a jury convicted him last month of felony child endangerment for his oversight of now-defrocked priest Edward Avery. Avery is serving a 2-1/2- to five-year term after pleading guilty to child sexual assault and conspiracy days before he was set to go on trial with Lynn.

Defense lawyers argued in a sentencing memo filed Thursday that few people in Pennsylvania serve a long prison term for child endangerment, and that Lynn should not serve more time than abusers themselves.

"Monsignor Lynn has never harbored any intent to harm a child," lawyers Thomas Bergstrom and Jeffrey Lindy wrote. "He certainly never foresaw that the tragic events leading up to (Avery's victim's) abuse would take place."

Lynn has spent a month in prison since the verdict. He now seeks a term of time served combined with house arrest, community service, work release or probation.

"The seven-year maximum sentence that the commonwealth advocates would serve no purpose at all — (it) would merely be cruel and unusual," the lawyers wrote.

Prosecutors spent a decade investigating hundreds of sex-abuse complaints kept in secret files at the archdiocese and issued two damning grand jury reports. They argue that Lynn and unindicted co-conspirators in the church hierarchy kept children in danger and prosecutors and the public in the dark by covering up reports that priests were molesting children.

Lynn reviewed the secret files in 1994, and sent a list of 35 problem priests to Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, including some diagnosed pedophiles or deemed guilty based on their admissions. The cardinal had the list shredded, according to a memo the church turned after Bevilacqua died in January.

Lynn plans to appeal his landmark conviction to the state Superior Court immediately after he is sentenced Tuesday. His lawyers have long argued that the state's child-endangerment statute — revised in 2007 to include those who supervise abusers — should not apply to Lynn since he left office in 2004.

Prosecutors are expected to file their sentencing memo Friday.

Lynn was acquitted of conspiracy and a second endangerment count involving a co-defendant, the Rev. James Brennan. The jury deadlocked on the 1996 abuse claim against Brennan.

Common Pleas Judge M. Teresa Sarmina surprised some court observers by revoking Lynn's bail after the June 22 jury verdict, sending the dazed cleric straight to prison.

Lynn had been staying with a sibling in Reading since his February 2011 arrest, when he was pulled him from his Downingtown parish and put on leave.

Supporters insist that Lynn is being made a scapegoat for the sins of the church. Lynn himself testified that Bevilacqua had to approve all of his recommendations — from what to tell accusers to whether to send a priest to treatment or a new assignment.

Archbishop Charles Chaput took over the archdiocese of 1.5 million people last fall. Chaput did not attend the trial, but visited Lynn in prison this month.