Pa. monsignor: Tough choice on challenging accuser
The defense in a clergy-abuse trial is between a rock and a hard place in deciding whether to challenge the credibility of a man who says he was raped by two Catholic priests and his fifth-grade teacher.
If they do, a judge is likely to let jurors hear that one of the priests has pleaded guilty.
The accuser is set to testify Wednesday in the child-endangerment trial of Monsignor William Lynn.
Lynn is charged with endangering children by keeping predator-priests in ministry during 12 years as secretary for clergy in the Philadelphia archdiocese. He’s also charged with conspiring with the accused priests, including defrocked priest Edward Avery.
Avery pleaded guilty days before trial to sexually assaulting the northeast Philadelphia altar boy in 1999. He is now in prison.
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