PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer
When defense lawyers go before Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge M. Teresa Sarmina on Monday to ask for bail pending appeal for Msgr. William J. Lynn, the guest of honor will not be present.
The 61-year-old cleric, sentenced July 24 to 3 to 6 years in prison after a jury found him guilty of child endangerment in the landmark clergy sex abuse trial involving the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia, is already more than 100 miles away in the state prison at Camp Hill near Harrisburg.
At sentencing, Lynn told his lawyer he did not want to be returned to Philadelphia for his bail hearing, which would have required a rigorous prison bus ride as well as a likely stay at the state prison at Graterford in Montgomery County before his court date.
Lynn was the archdiocesan secretary for clergy from 1992 to 2004, a job in which he was responsible for investigating allegations that priests sexually abused minors. Though Lynn personally was never accused of sexual abuse, city prosecutors maintained that he enabled deviate priests to prey on children by moving them among Philadelphia-area parishes.
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