Philadelphia DA’s Office says it won’t call controversial witness in clergy sex-abuse retrial

City prosecutors said Wednesday that they do not plan to call a controversial sex-abuse accuser to testify next month at the child-endangerment retrial for a former ranking cleric in the Philadelphia Archdiocese, even though the witness’ testimony was a key element of the 2012 trial.

The disclosure came during a pretrial hearing for Msgr. William J. Lynn, the first Catholic Church administrator in the nation convicted on charges related to ignoring or concealing clergy sex abuse. Lynn has been awaiting a retrial since his conviction was first overturned by an appellate court in 2013.

The witness, now in his 30s and living in Florida, testified in 2012 and 2013 that he had been sexually assaulted as an altar boy in the 1990s by two priests and one teacher at St. Jerome Catholic Church in Northeast Philadelphia. At the time, Lynn had been the secretary for clergy, the archdiocesan administrator responsible for reviewing abuse complaints and recommending priests’ assignments.

He was convicted of endangerment in part for allowing a suspected abusive cleric, the Rev. Edward Avery, to live in the rectory at St. Jerome’s.

The accuser, identified in court filings only as Billy Doe, was also the central witness at the sex-assault trials of another St. Jerome’s priest, the Rev. Charles Engelhardt, and an archdiocesan schoolteacher, Bernard Shero. Both were convicted and sent to prison.

Engelhardt died in prison in 2014 while appealing the case. Shero was freed in 2017 when a judge overturned his conviction, citing concerns about Doe’s credibility. Shero pleaded no contest to a related charge and was sentenced to time served.

On Wednesday, prosecutors Robert Listenbee, a top deputy to DA Larry Krasner, and Patrick Blessington, the lead prosecutor in Lynn’s 2012 trial, offered several explanations for their decision not to call Doe to the stand next month, including a desire to avoid “re-traumatizing” the witness.

They also said they could rely on other witnesses to prove that Lynn, now 69, failed to protect children while he served as secretary of clergy and oversaw investigations of accused priests.

Attorneys for Lynn and the two other defendants had long attacked the credibility of the witness, citing his criminal history, drug use, and oft-changing accounts of his assaults. On Wednesday, Lynn’s lead lawyer, Thomas Bergstrom, repeatedly questioned how prosecutors could try the priest for endangering children if they now weren’t willing to present testimony from the accuser.

Both sets of lawyers were barred from speaking to reporters afterward due to a gag order on the case.

Lynn’s conviction was overturned twice, once in 2013 and again in 2015, when an appellate court ruled that prosecutors unfairly presented too many instances of past sex abuse by Philadelphia archdiocesan priests — some that occurred decades before Lynn had been a priest — in a bid to show it was a pattern of conduct by church leaders.

Initially sentenced to three to six years behind bars, Lynn served 33 months in prison before being released on bail in 2016.

Blessington said in court Wednesday that instead of Doe’s testimony, prosecutors planned to call Avery, who pleaded guilty to abusing Doe. Avery was also called as a witness at Engelhardt’s and Shero’s trial in 2013; he testified that he didn’t know Doe and had only pleaded guilty to escape a longer prison term.

Common Pleas Court Judge Gwendolyn Bright said Wednesday that it was up to prosecutors to decide whether or not to put Doe on the stand, but added they should make sure he was present for at least part of the trial: “The named victim should be present," she said.

Lynn’s retrial is scheduled to begin next month and is expected to last at least three weeks.