Jailed Church Official Wins Latest Child-Endangerment Appeal

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Jailed Church Official Wins Latest Child-Endangerment Appeal

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
PHILADELPHIA — Feb 10, 2016, 3:27 PM ET

A Roman Catholic church official could again seek bail after a Pennsylvania appeals court refused to review a ruling that throws out his child-endangerment conviction.

Monsignor William Lynn has been in and out of prison as appeals courts have split on the validity of his 2012 conviction.

The 65-year-old Lynn is the first U.S. church supervisor ever charged over his role in the alleged cover-up of priest sexual abuse.

The jury found he endangered an altar boy by moving a known pedophile priest to the boy's parish.

Lynn has served more than two years of a three-to-six-year sentence.

The state Superior Court on Wednesday says it won't review a December decision that overturned the conviction.

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Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/jailed-church-official-wins-latest-child-endangerment-appeal-36842901

[rug]

1. There's good reason for this.

In Philadelphia, the Billy Doe case remains front-page news three years after the original trial that convicted Lynn. On December 22, the Pennsylvania state Superior Court for the second time overturned Lynn’s conviction and ordered a new trial. A three-judge panel ruled that the trial judge in the case, M. Teresa Sarmina, abused her discretion when she admitted into evidence against the monsignor 21 supplemental cases of sex abuse dating back to 1948, three years before the 64-year-old Lynn was born.

Lynn, however, isn’t getting out of jail anytime soon. He continues to work for 19 cents an hour as a prison librarian, pending an appeal by Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams. The DA last month filed a petition to reargue the case before all nine judges on the appeals court. Also blocking Lynn’s release is Sarmina, who has repeatedly denied his applications for bail.

Lynn had served 18 months of his three- to six-year prison sentence on December 26, 2013, when the Superior Court reversed his conviction and ordered that he be “discharged forthwith.” But Sarmina ordered that Lynn be kept under house arrest in a church rectory and forced to wear an electronic ankle bracelet.

On April 27, 2015, the reversal was reversed by Pennsylvania’s highest court, and the DA filed a motion to revoke his bail. Sarmina agreed and, after 16 months of house arrest, sent Lynn back to prison.

http://www.newsweek.com/2016/01/29/billy-doe-altar-boy-sends-four-men-prison-philadelphia-rape-case-417565.html