Frustration grows over priest-abuse jury questions

Jury questions and lengthy deliberations in a groundbreaking clergy-abuse case in Philadelphia are causing some frustration.

Jurors are deliberating for a seventh day Tuesday on the fate of a Roman Catholic priest and the monsignor who supervised him.

But their frequent requests to re-hear testimony or get help interpreting the law led one lawyer to explode in court. William Brennan represents the Rev. James Brennan, who is charged with attempted rape and child endangerment.

 

The judge plans to let jurors hear the priest’s accuser’s recorded testimony from a 2008 church trial. The testimony is in evidence, but wasn’t read in court during the three-month trial.

But the defense lawyer strenuously objected, and said it’s time to tell the jury to do its job.

Brennan is not related to his client.