Judge: Try priests, official together

Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA

A monsignor who is the only U.S. church official ever charged with transferring pedophile priests to unsuspecting parishes will be tried alongside four priests accused of rape, a judge ruled Friday.

Common Pleas Judge Lillian Ransom denied most of the pretrial requests made by Monsignor William Lynn, two current priests, a former priest and a former Catholic schoolteacher. The men wanted their cases to be tried separately and asked for many of the charges against them to be dismissed.

Lynn, 60, the linchpin of the case, is charged with conspiracy and child endangerment for purportedly transferring priests he believed to be pedophiles. Lynn, who served as secretary of clergy from 1992 to 2004 under former Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, is the only U.S. church official ever charged in the sex-abuse scandal for his administrative actions.

The four others are charged in the same criminal case with raping boys. Three of them are accused of raping the same child, starting when he was 10 years old in 1999, according to a grand jury report released in February.