PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Fox News
Published June 22, 2012
Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA – A jury reached a verdict in a groundbreaking priest-abuse trial and was poised to announce it Friday afternoon.
Monsignor William Lynn is the first U.S. church official charged for allegedly helping an archdiocese cover up abuse claims. He faces about 10 to 20 years in prison if convicted of conspiracy and two counts of child endangerment.
Lynn is on leave from the Philadelphia archdiocese, where he served as secretary for clergy from 1992 to 2004.
Defense lawyers said Lynn alone tried to document abuse complaints, get priests into treatment and alert the cardinal to the growing crisis. Church documents show therapists had called one accused priest a ticking “time bomb” and “powder keg.”
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