PHILADELPHIA — A Roman Catholic church official who has been jailed for more than a year for his handling of priest sex-abuse complaints had his conviction reversed and was ordered released Thursday.
In dismissing the landmark criminal case, a three-judge appeals court panel unanimously rejected prosecutors’ arguments that Monsignor William Lynn, the first U.S. church official ever charged or convicted for the handling of clergy-abuse complaints, was legally responsible for the abused child’s welfare.
“He’s been in prison 18 months for a crime he didn’t commit and couldn’t commit under the law,” said his attorney, Thomas Bergstrom. “It’s incredible what happened to this man.”
Lynn, 62, is serving a three- to six-year prison sentence after his child-endangerment conviction last year. His attorneys will try to get him released as early as this week from the state prison in Waymart. Prosecutors promised to fight the ruling and any move to release him.
Prosecutors had argued at trial that Lynn reassigned known predators to new parishes in Philadelphia while he was the archdiocese’s secretary for clergy from 1992 to 2004. Lynn’s conviction stems from the case of one priest, Edward Avery, found to have abused a child in 1998 after such a transfer.
Lynn’s attorneys have long contended that the state’s child-endangerment law at the time applied only to parents and caregivers, not to supervisors such as Lynn. Common Pleas Judge M. Teresa Sarmina had rejected their argument and allowed the case to move forward.
Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams said he strongly disagrees with the state Superior Court panel’s 43-page opinion reversing Sarmina’s decision.
“Because we will be appealing, the conviction still stands for now, and the defendant cannot be lawfully released until the end of the process,” he said in a statement.
Sarmina concluded that Lynn perhaps drafted a 1994 list of accused priests to try to address the clergy-abuse problem.
Lynn’s supporters think he was made a scapegoat for the church’s sins, including two cardinals who were never charged.
