D.A. Loses Appeal In Msgr. Lynn Case; Bail Motion May Be Next

CBy Ralph Cipriano
for BigTrial.net

Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams lost an appeal in state Superior Court this morning in his crusade to keep Msgr. William J. Lynn behind bars.

Williams had asked the full, nine-member court to review a Dec. 22nd decision by a three-court panel of Superior Court judges that reversed Lynn's conviction and ordered a new trial. But in a one-sentence decision released this morning, the Superior Court announced that the D.A.'s application "requesting reargument" of the case before the full court had been "DENIED."

Lynn has remained behind bars pending appeals.  The 64-year-old monsignor is currently working for 19 cents an hour as the prison librarian at the State Correctional Institute in Waymart, Pa. But now that the state Superior Court has ruled on the D.A.'s appeal, it will surprise nobody if Lynn's lawyers file a motion for bail.

Meanwhile, the D.A. has a decision to make; whether he will appeal the state Superior Court decision overturning Lynn's conviction to the state Supreme Court, where he has been successful in the past. The D.A. has not yet issued any public pronouncements on what he will do. But in a press conference last month, Williams vowed to do whatever it takes to keep Lynn in jail, including another appeal to the state Supreme Court.

On June 22, 2012, a Philadelphia Common Pleas Court jury found Lynn guilty of a single charge of endangering the welfare of a child; but the alleged "victim" in the case was the infamous former altar boy known as "Billy Doe." Lynn became the first Catholic administrator in the country to be sent to jail for failing to control a sexually abusive priest.

On July 24, 2012, Judge M. Teresa Sarmina sentenced Lynn to three to six years in prison, but twice in the past two years, the state Superior Court has reversed the monsignor's conviction. The legal drama has kept the monsignor shuffling between jail and house arrest.

Lynn had served 18 months of his sentence on Dec. 26, 2013 when a panel of three state Superior Court judges -- John T. Bender, Christine L. Donohue and John L. Musmanno -- unanimously reversed the monsignor's conviction the first time and ordered him "released forthwith." But Judge Sarmina didn't agree, and instead conditions that amounted to house arrest. In doing so, the judge voiced concerns that if she granted the bail motion, Lynn might flee to the Vatican.

Under Judge Sarmina's orders, Lynn was confined to living on two floors of a church rectory in Northeast Philadelphia. He had to wear an electronic ankle bracelet at all times and needed the permission of his parole officer to visit his doctor or lawyer.

Lynn had spent 16 months under house arrest on April 27th, when the state Supreme Court, after an appeal by the D.A., reversed the reversal by the Superior Court. Three days later, Judge Sarmina granted a motion by the D.A.'s office to revoke bail and send Lynn back to jail to serve out the remainder of his sentence.

Lynn will have served his minimum sentence of three years this October, when he would be up for parole.

In their most recent reversal, the same panel of three state Superior Court judges ruled that the trial court had "abused its discretion" by allowing 21 supplemental cases of sex abuse to be admitted as evidence against Lynn.

The 21 cases dated back to 1948, three years before Lynn was born, and took up at least 25 days of the 32-day trial. In his appeal brief, Lynn's lawyer, Thomas A. Bergstrom, argued that the prosecution "introduced these files to put on trial the entire Archdiocese of Philadelphia, hoping to convict [Lynn] by proxy for the sins of the entire church."

The Superior Court judges agreed, ruling that the "probative value" of the supplemental cases "did not outweigh its potential for unfair prejudice, and that this potential prejudice was not overcome by the trial court's cautionary instructions."

In their decision, the Superior Court judges heavily criticized Judge Sarmina.

"None of the evidence concerned the actual victim in this case, and none of it directly concerned [Lynn's] prior dealings with either [former priest Edward V.] Avery or [Father James J.] Brennan," the Superior Court judges wrote, referring to the two co-defendants who were on trial with Lynn. "In this regard, the trial court has apparently mistaken quantity for quality in construing the probative value of this evidence en masse." The Superior Court judges further declared that the "probative value of significant quantities of this evidence was trivial or minimal."

Now, Judge Sarmina may have a new bail motion to consider. And if she turns Lynn down again, or puts him on house arrest one more time, Lynn's defense lawyers can appeal to the state Superior Court.

Meanwhile, the D.A. has to decide whether he will appeal the case a second time to state Supreme Court, where his odds on winning another successful challenge would be more difficult.

But at a Dec. 28th press conference, the D.A. made his intentions clear.

"My office is committed to ensuring the safety of all the citizens of Philadelphia and today, specifically the victim of Msgr. William Lynn," Williams declared. "Simply put, we will continue to use all of my office's resources to ensure that the Defendant Lynn remains in state custody as ordered by Common Pleas Judge M. Teresa Sarmina."