NATION & WORLD
Friday, December 27, 2013 THE NEW MEXICAN
A-3
Court reverses church official’s conviction Lynn charged with child-endangerment in handling of priest sex-abuse complaints
for an abused boy’s welfare in the late 1990s. “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 lawyers hoped for his immediate release Thursday from the state prison in Waymart, but the appeals court denied the request, instead sending the bail issue back to the trial court. Prosecutors vowed to oppose bail and to challenge the 43-page opinion. “Because we will be appealing, the conviction still stands for now, and the defendant cannot be lawfully released until
By MaryClaire Dale The Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA — A Roman Catholic Church official who has been jailed for more than a year for his handling of priest sexabuse complaints had his landmark conviction reversed and was ordered released Thursday. A three-judge Superior Court panel unanimously rejected prosecution 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
the end of the process,” District Attorney Seth Williams said in a statement. His office contended at trial that Lynn Monsignor William 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. Victims’ groups blasted the reversal. “We know thousands of betrayed Catholics and wounded victims will be disheartened by this news,” said David Cloches, director of the
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. Lynn’s attorneys have long argued that the state’s childendangerment law at the time applied only to parents and caregivers, not supervisors like Lynn. Common Pleas Judge M. Teresa Sarmina had rejected their argument and sent the case to trial. Sarmina concluded that Lynn perhaps drafted a 1994 list of accused priests to try to address the clergy abuse problem. But when Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua had the list destroyed, Lynn chose to stick around — and keep quiet, she said. A copy of the list was found years later in a safe and was repeatedly shown at trial. Sarmina, in sentencing Lynn in July 2012, had said the church administrator had “enabled monsters in clerical garb … to
Activists: Syria will let food into rebel town of hunger-related illnesses by September, said activists. The agreement also demanded rebels hand over their heavy weapons and that only registered residents of Moadamiyeh may remain in the town, in a condition likely to thin rebel ranks. “There’s sadness inside us, but we raised the flag because nobody helped us, nobody extended their hands to us,” said a Moadamiyeh resident who identified only as Ahmad, fearing retribution from Syrian security forces. “We are ready to save the lives of [hungry] children. There’s no bread in Moadamiyeh. For three months, there’s been not even a grain of rice,” he said. The Syrian national flag of red, black and white stripes with two green stars could be seen from a distance flying over a water tanker, according to footage broadcast on a Lebanon-based news channel. That flag is often associated with the ruling Baath party, and many rebels fighting Assad use
By Diaa Hadid
The Associated Press
BEIRUT — Residents of a blockaded rebel-held town near Damascus raised the flag used by the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad in a deal that sees them accept symbolic humiliation in exchange for food, activists said Thursday. The deal accepted by the town of Moadamiyeh is one of a number of short-lived, local truces reached between opposition-held towns and government forces in recent months, although the terms — which also included the rebels handing over heavy weapons and expelling outsiders — are unusual. Residents described it as a bitter pill to swallow. For nearly a year, the sprawling community west of Damascus was shelled and starved, surrounded by government checkpoints that refused to allow through food, clean water and fuel, pressuring residents to expel anti-Assad rebels among them. At least two women and four children died
Carolyn Baca (505) 820-1442
a flag with green, white and black stripes and three red stars. Hard-line groups use a range of Islamic banners. Syrian legislator George Nakhleh said that after the rebels hand over their heavy weapons, residents will establish local armed groups whose job will be to protect the town. He said the army will not enter the area but will guard it from outside. “The army will protect Moadamiyeh, but inside the town the
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plaints against dozens of priests. Williams, her successor, revisited the issue when new accusers came forward under new laws that extended the time limits and added church or school supervisors to the list of people who could be charged. Williams filed the novel child-endangerment case against Lynn, while charging three other priests and a teacher of sexually abusing children. Three of them have been convicted while the jury deadlocked in the fourth case. Lynn’s trial lasted several months, although a majority of the testimony involved victim testimony from earlier, uncharged priest-abuse cases, much of it graphic. Sarmina allowed the jury to hear that evidence to let prosecutors show the pattern of behavior by Lynn and other church officials.
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residents will protect it. They will carry weapons and set up checkpoints to prevent the entrance of strangers who came from around the world to destroy our country,” said Nakhleh in an interview with the Lebanonbased Al-Mayadeen TV. He added that state institutions will gradually return to normal work and all gates will be opened in order for food and other stuff to enter the town so that life returns to normal.
destroy the souls of children,” rather than stand up to his bishop. Lynn told the judge: “I did not intend any harm to come to [the boy]. The fact is, my best was not good enough to stop that harm.” Lynn’s supporters believe he was made a scapegoat for the church’s sins. Nonetheless, Bergstrom said his client hopes to return to ministry and has enjoyed support of the current Philadelphia archbishop, Charles J. Chaput, who twice visited him in prison. Lynn had left the archdiocesan hierarchy for parish work after he featured prominently in a damning 2005 grand jury report into the priest-abuse scandal. Then-District Attorney Lynne Abraham concluded that too much time had passed to charge anyone criminally despite decades of abuse com-
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