PHILADELPHIA (PA)
KTAR
By MARYCLAIRE DALE
March 26th, 2012
PHILADELPHIA (AP) – The start of a landmark priest abuse case involving a high-ranking official in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia was delayed Monday while a judge weighed a defense request for a new jury after the abrupt guilty plea last week of a co-defendant.
Attorneys for Monsignor William Lynn and the Rev. James Brennan planned to attack the credibility of the priests’ troubled adult accusers, but that strategy took a hit last week when defrocked priest Edward Avery entered a last-minute guilty plea, confirming one accuser’s account of a brutal 1999 sexual assault inside a church sacristy.
The trial for Lynn and Brennan was scheduled to begin Monday morning after weeks of jury selection and pretrial wrangling. Both men were in court for the start of the trial, but the judge and jury were not.
All three priests were to be tried together before Avery pleaded guilty Thursday to charges related to an assault on a then-10-year-old altar boy.
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