PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Priest Abuse Trial Blog
Ralph Cipriano
Msgr. Lynn’s lawyers are asking the state Superior Court to let their client out on bail pending appeal.
In a brief filed this week, Lynn’s lawyers say the monsignor was convicted on June 22 of one count of endangering the welfare of a child [EWOC] “based upon a novel and controversial theory of liability that held him criminally responsible for inadequately supervising a priest … alleged to have sexually abused a child.”
The state’s 1972 child endangerment law was usually applied to parents, guardians, and those in direct contact with children, say defense lawyers Thomas A. Bergstrom, Allison Khaskelis, and Alan J. Tauber. Lynn is the first supervisor in the history of Pennsylvania to be charged under the old child endangerment law, even though he never had any direct contact with the child, the lawyers argue.
The defense lawyers say they have a “substantial legal claim” because in 2005, then-District Attorney Lynne Abraham agreed that the old state endangerment law did not apply to Lynn, Cardinal Bevilacqua or other members of the hierarchy of the archdiocese of Philadelphia.
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