PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer
KAREN HELLER, INQUIRER COLUMNIST
POSTED: Wednesday, January 8, 2014
Monsignor William Lynn descended five stories Monday from the courtroom to freedom, only to be met by a scrum of cameras and foul-mouthed hecklers. But he is also 80 pounds lighter from 18 months of exercise and prison grub, so perhaps incarceration wasn’t all bad.
The day after Christmas, a three-judge appeals panel overturned the former archdiocese secretary’s conviction of child endangerment in protecting pedophile and defrocked priest Edward Avery. The laws then on the books, the court ruled, applied only to direct supervisors of children, not people supervising those supervisors.
While overturning the conviction, the judges noted that the monsignor was all about shielding his seniors. Like many successful bureaucrats, Lynn managed up.
Lynn’s “first priority in dealing with sexually abusive priests appeared to be the protection of the reputation of the archdiocese,” the judges wrote. “His second priority appeared to be protection of the reputation of the offending priest.”
The sex-abuse scandal has cost the Philadelphia Archdiocese an estimated $12 million in legal defense. It does not appear to be over, at least to District Attorney Seth Williams, who took his second-term oath the day of Lynn’s bail hearing. He said his office most likely would appeal the court’s ruling.
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