VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:
NEWSREADER:
…The landmark case. The case: the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal and now will be moving to the state Supreme Court after Monsignor William Lynn’s conviction was overturned and he could be out on bail by the end of this week, maybe next week. A judge set his bail at $250,000, he has to submit to electronic monitoring, live in Philadelphia, and surrender his passport. It will be days though before Lynn gets out of prison. All the conditions must be met for his release. Joining us to talk more about this case in our digital operation center is criminal defense lawyer Enrique Latoison and Enrique, thanks for being here.
ENRIQUE:
Thank you.
NEWSREADER:
First, can you explain the reason that the superior court said that they overturned the conviction and implications moving forward?
ENRIQUE:
Yeah. I mean, it’s a very narrow interpretation by the superior court. Basically, before 2007, for you to be convicted of a charge endangering the welfare of a child, you had to be the one that was in direct contact with the child. Now, after 2007, the law changed and the law said now, if you’re a supervisor of someone who’s directly in contact with a child, then you can be convicted of a charge. Now, there’s no dispute here that what he was convicted of is something that took place before 2007. So, on the old law, supervisors cannot be directly liable for what other people did. Now, the defense argued at the time that this law did not apply. The prosecutors argued that this law should apply, that it should be thought of on a more broad, and the judge then looked at it and decided to make an interpretation and said that we’re gonna include supervisors. The superior court said no. The law before 2007 did not include supervisors; the law after 2007 does, and, therefore, overturned the conviction.
NEWSREADER:
All right, now explain this question that a lot of people have. If the conviction is overturned, why set bail? Why is there bail?
ENRIQUE:
Well, the prosecution still has a right the appeal. They’re asking a higher court to now overturn the superior court’s opinion and to reinstate the conviction. So the judge said: “Well, I might have made a mistake here.” The judge believes she made the right interpretation, but the prosecution argued that he might be a flight risk, but, as you just stated, he had to give up his passport, it’s gonna be _____ monitor, and until the process plays itself out, the judge did grant the bail. Even though the judge feels as though the judge made the right decision in this interpretation of the law, the judge still feels if the conviction is overturned, then the punishment’s gonna be in question; therefore, I’m gonna allow the bail.
WOMAN:
All right, Enrique Latoison. Thanks so much for talking with us, Enrique. We appreciate it.
ENRIQUE:
Thank you.
Contact Enrique Latoison
(610) 999-1439