Monsignor William Lynn, Pa. priest who had sex abuse conviction overturned, surrenders passport
PHILADELPHIA -- Lawyers for a Roman Catholic church official have surrendered his passport as they try to get him out of prison on bail after 18 months.
Monsignor William Lynn's bail was set at $250,000 after a Pennsylvania appeals court overturned his conviction in a clergy sex-abuse scandal.
Lynn is the first U.S. church official ever convicted for his handling of abuse claims. But an appeals court now says the child-endangerment felony didn't apply to him.
Officials at the state prison in Waymart, in northeastern Pennsylvania, are awaiting word on when Lynn can be released.
Defense lawyer Thomas Bergstrom says he is trying to set up the electronic monitoring ordered by the trial judge.
Lynn is expected to live in Philadelphia while prosecutors ask the state Supreme Court to restore his conviction.
Prosecutors had contended at trial
that Lynn reassigned known predators to new parishes in Philadelphia while he
was the archdiocese's secretary for clergy from 1992 to 2004. Lynn's conviction
stems from the case of one priest, Edward Avery, found to have abused a child
in 1998 after such a transfer.