PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Daily News
MENSAH M. DEAN, DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER DEANM@PHILLYNEWS.COM, 215-568-8278
LAST UPDATED: Wednesday, March 5, 2014
His face turning red, the Rev. Andrew McCormick Wednesday turned toward the nine women and three men who will decide his fate and blurted out: “I want the jury to know that I never molested. I want to convince you of that.”
Moments later, when asked by defense attorney William J. Brennan if he had ever molested any of the estimated 700 altar boys he came in contact with over 14 years at a Bridesburg church, McCormick, 57, was succinct: “Never,” he simply said, bringing his attorney’s brief questioning to a sudden conclusion.
Thursday morning, the Common Pleas Court jury will hear closing arguments from Brennan and Assistant District Attorney Kristen Kemp. The jurors will then begin deliberating after receiving legal instructions from Judge Gwendolyn N. Bright.
McCormick, who rejected a guilty-plea offer from Kemp’s office, is being tried for involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, sexual assault, child endangerment, indecent exposure and related counts for allegedly attempting to force a 10-year-old altar boy to perform oral sex on him in 1997.
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