Former Altar Boy Faces a Grilling

By Ralph Cipriano
Big Trial
January 9, 2013

http://www.bigtrial.net/search/label/Archdiocese%20Sex%20Abuse%20Trial

In the first Archdiocese of Philadelphia sex abuse trial, nobody got to cross-examine a key witness known as "Billy Doe," a former 10-year-old altar boy whose testimony about sins committed in a sacristy led to the historic conviction of a monsignor.

At that first trial, defense lawyers in the case, facing a hostile judge, ultimately decided that the cost of cross-examing Billy was too high, so they reluctantly gave him a pass. That decision preceded the conviction of Msgr. William J. Lynn, the first Catholic administrator in the country to go to jail for the sexual sins of the clergy.

But this time around, at the second Archdiocese of Philadelphia sex abuse trial, Billy Doe is going to be tested, probably severely. And the fate of two additional defendants, a priest and a former Catholic teacher, will depend solely on whether the jury buys Billy's story, because there's not one shred of physical evidence in the case.

That's the message delivered today in the opening statements of the second Archdiocese of Philadelphia sex abuse trial.