DA asks appeals court to reargue Monsignor William Lynn case

District Attorney Seth Williams appealed to the Superior Court of Pennsylvania Monday, asking to reargue the case against Monsignor William Lynn in front of a full panel of the 14-member court.

In legal terms, this is called an application for En Banc Reargument, and is in response to the court’s Dec. 22 decision to reverse Lynn’s conviction of judgment of sentence for endangering the welfare of children.

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“Simply put, I will continue to use all of my office’s resources to ensure the defendant, Lynn, remains in state custody, as ordered by Common Pleas Judge Teresa Sarmina,” Williams said during a press conference Monday afternoon.

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“It is our position that the trial court properly [entered] into evidence other bad acts which showed a pattern and practice of concealing and protecting child sexual predator priests by the defendant, William Lynn.”

Hugh J. Burns, Jr., chief of the DA’s appeals unit, admitted that most of the time in cases like these, the superior court declines the application for En Banc, but Williams said it was still worth a try.

“We have to do all we can,” he said.

“Hopefully this will shed light on the fact that institutions cannot shield pedophiles.”

Williams said that should the state superior court decide to deny the request, he would appeal to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

Lynn was the first supervisor in the U.S. to be convicted in the church’s sexual abuse scandal. He was not convicted of actually abusing children.

Lynn’s lawyer, Thomas Bergstrom, did not immediately return calls seeking comment.