Monsignor William Lynn becomes first US priest convicted for abuse cover up

June 23rd, 2012

FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda

Mr Williams said he did not have sufficient evidence last year to charge other
officials, including Bevilacqua, who died in January at age 88.

Lynn had faced about 10 to 20 years in prison if convicted of all three counts
he faced – conspiracy and two counts of child endangerment. He was convicted
of only a single endangerment count, which carries a possible three and a
half- to seven-year prison term.

The jury could not reach a verdict for Lynn’s co-defendant, the Rev. James
Brennan, who was accused of sexually abusing a 14-year-old boy in 1999.

Despite Lynn’s acquittal on the conspiracy charge, the trial exposed how
deeply involved the late cardinal was in dealing with accused priests.

Bevilacqua had the final say on what to do with priests accused of abuse,
transferred many of them to new parishes and dressed down anyone who
complained, according to testimony. He also ordered the shredding of a 1994
list that Lynn prepared, warning that the archdiocese had three diagnosed
pedophiles, a dozen confirmed predators and another 20 possible abusers in
its midst.

Church lawyers turned over a surviving copy of the list days after Bevilacqua
died.

Lynn did not react when the verdict was read, or acknowledge the siblings and
other friends and relatives who have accompanied him to court for much of
the three-month trial. Several of them were weeping.

The judge revoked his bail and he was taken to jail, although his lawyers plan
to ask on Monday that he be granted house arrest until sentencing. No date
was set, but the judge scheduled an Aug. 13 presentencing hearing.

The defence also pledged to appeal the conviction.

“He’s upset. He’s crushed. He’s in custody and he didn’t want anything else
but to help kids,” defense lawyer Jeffrey Lindy said.

With the verdict, after 13 days of deliberations, jurors concluded that
prosecutors failed to show that Lynn was part of a conspiracy to move
predator priests around.

The jury, however, did find that Lynn endangered the victim of defrocked
priest Edward Avery, who pleaded guilty before trial to a 1999 sexual
assault.

Lynn had deemed Avery “guilty” of an earlier complaint on the 1994 list, and
helped steer him into an inpatient treatment program run by the archdiocese.
But Lynn knew that Avery later was sent to live in a northeast Philadelphia
parish, where the altar boy was assaulted.

The victim alleges that he was also assaulted by another priest and his
Catholic school teacher. They are expected to be tried later this year.

After the verdict, the archdiocese apologised to clergy-abuse victims and said
the church was on a “journey of reform and renewal that requires honesty and
hope.”

“We are committed to providing support and assistance to parishioners as they
and the church seek to more deeply understand sexual violence, and to create
an environment that is safe and welcoming to all, including past victims,”
read the church’s statement, which did not reference Lynn directly.

Terence McKiernan, president of BishopAccountability.org, called the verdict
“a watershed moment” in the priest sex-abuse crisis.

“Lynn was a smart, able manager who at any time could have called the police,
warned parishes, or threatened to blow the whistle,” Mr McKiernan said. “He
was not a helpless good guy. The only helpless people in this ongoing
catastrophe were the children, the many hundreds of boys and girls who were
sodomized and terrorized by the men Lynn managed.”

More than 500 Roman Catholic priests have been convicted of abuse charges
across the US, according to his group’s count. Lynn is the first church
official to be convicted for his administrative actions.

Defence lawyers say Lynn alone tried to document the complaints, get priests
into treatment and alert the cardinal to the growing crisis. Church
documents show therapists had called one accused priest a ticking “time
bomb” and “powder keg.”

During the 10-week trial, more than a dozen adults testified about wrenching
abuse they said they suffered at the hands of revered priests.