Falsely Imprisoned Msgr. William Lynn attending a bail hearing in 2014

What may be the greatest courtroom fraud ever perpetrated against the Catholic Church has finally come to an end.

But unlike a decade ago when the media fell over themselves inside a packed courtroom to report the single guilty conviction (out of four charges total) against Philadelphia's Msgr. William J. Lynn, there was no such fanfare recently when Lynn's case officially ended in near-empty chambers.

A long fraud

If you thought that the Msgr. Lynn case had concluded a long time ago, you would not be alone. Indeed, Lynn's conviction was overturned twice over the years. But despite the mountains of evidence exonerating Msgr. Lynn and showing that the entire case was a complete scam, Philly's far-left, George Soros-funded D.A. – a loon named Larry Krasner – was determined to retry Lynn in a show trial and publicly bludgeon the Catholic Church just as one of his predecessors, the corrupt Seth Williams, did years earlier. [For case background basics, see this.]

However, in a very rare rebuke of Krasner, Judge Gwendolyn Bright opposed Krasner's wish to continue the decade-long circus and forced his office to arrange a plea deal with Lynn. In the end, Lynn agreed to plea no contest to one paltry count of something called "obstructing the administration of law," a measly second-degree misdemeanor.

Judge Bright did not lay down any further punishment of Lynn. Over the last decade Msgr. Lynn served nearly three years in prison and fifteen months of house arrest for crimes that never even happened. It was a true travesty of justice that should never occur again – to anyone.

A beacon of light in the darkness

True journalism:
Philadelphia's Ralph Cipriano

Indeed, this site was the first outlet to question the wild and sensationalistic claims of the 2011 "grand jury report" that targeted the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and set the Lynn case in motion. We also exclusively published the lengthy criminal record of the accuser (Bukowski) of Fr. James Brennan.

However, since then, nearly everything we learned about the injustice against the Church in Philadelphia came from independent journalist Ralph Cipriano, who remarkably began his reporting on the case as "pro-prosecution" but soon saw the deceit playing out in front of him in the courtroom. Most of what we've reported in the past decade on Philadelphia has been based on Cipriano's dogged reporting.

Cipriano represents brand of journalism which is almost nonexistent today, a brand that follows facts, not a political agenda. His must-see, insider reporting on the goings-on in Philadelphia are over at Substack: Big Trial. Check it out.

Happy 2023.

Falsely accused by Philly DA Seth Williams: Catholic teacher Bernard Shero

Philadelphia Catholic school teacher Bernard Shero, who was falsely convicted in 2013 along with the late Rev. Charles Engelhardt in a high-profile trial for child sex abuse that never occurred, is finally going to be a free man.

After being falsely accused of sex abuse by a lying drug addict named Danny Gallagher, Shero will exit prison after serving four-and-a-half years of a maximum 16-year sentence.

The news was first reported by journalist Ralph Cipriano at BigTrial.net.

An insider blows the lid off

Regular readers of this site have long known that Gallagher's claims of abuse are wildly false (see this and this for background). It is now an incontrovertible fact that the Philadelphia D.A.'s office – spearheaded by D.A. Seth Williams, who now sits in solitary confinement on multiple charges of corruption and bribery – orchestrated a malicious scheme against innocent men and the Catholic Church based on Gallagher's bogus stories.

And another fact we now know is that the Philly D.A.'s office knew all along that Gallagher's claims were preposterous, but it proceeded against innocent Catholic priests anyway.

How do we know this? Back in May, Cipriano was the first to report of a stunning 12-page affidavit written by the lead detective in the Philly D.A.'s office, Detective Joseph Walsh. In the affidavit, Walsh not only blows the lid off Gallagher's wildly false claims of abuse, but he also exposes how when he confronted Philly Assistant D.A. Mariana Sorensen – truly a major force behind the decade-plus-long witch hunt in Philadelphia – with the numerous problems with Gallagher's case, Sorensen retorted, "You're killing my case."

[***Click to read Det. Joe Walsh's affidavit (courtesy of Ralph Cipriano)***]

After conducting numerous interviews with Gallagher himself and the people closest to his case, Walsh made his decision: "I concluded that this information was a lie."

Of course, Shero's release did not come without a catch. Based in part on Detective Walsh's stunning information, Shero had appealed for a new trial. And prosecutors knew that the judge in the case was likely about to grant him one. Prosecutors also knew that a new trial would expose the fraud that they themselves had perpetrated; so they struck a deal with Shero. In order to obtain his release, Shero had to agree to plea no contest to crimes he never committed. As Cipriano has reported:

"[Philly prosecutors] struck a deal so the D.A.'s office could still pretend that Danny Gallagher was a rape victim and that Rufus Seth Williams' self-described 'historic' prosecution of the Catholic Church was legitimate.

"Even though Danny Gallagher is a fraud, Rufus Seth Williams is a criminal on his way to hell, and his prosecution of the church is a certified witch hunt that put four innocent men in jail, and one of those men, the Rev. Charles Engelhardt, died there.

"Truth may be a casualty. But Bernie Shero will soon be a free man.

"In Philadelphia, this is what passes for justice."

The Inky goes into hiding – again

Complicit in the imprisonment of innocent men has been Philadelphia's newspaper of record, the Philadelphia Inquirer. While the Inky repeatedly trumpeted the numerous bogus claims of abuse years ago, it has been stunningly silent in reporting the corruption and fraud perpetrated by the Philly D.A.'s office against not only the Catholic Church, but also against truth and justice.

After Shero was released from prison on Wednesday (8/16/17), we wrote to a bunch of editors and staffers at the Inquirer asking them if they would report Shero's release. A short time later, we saw that the Inky mustered up a measly 123-word wire story (since slightly lengthened) from the Associated Press.

Breathtaking journalism, indeed.

————————-

[ADDENDUM: Since writing this post, Ralph Cipriano has published two new posts worth checking out:

1. "Billy Doe Prosecutor: We Don't Need No Stinkin' Investigation" (8/17/17)

2. "Detective Joe Walsh Responds To ADA Blessington" (8/17/17)]

Soon to be inmate: Disgraced Philadelphia D.A. Seth Williams

Inasmuch as Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams has been engaged in a years-long, Moby Dick-like obsession to throw innocent Catholic priests in prison, there was a sense of poetic justice when federal prosecutors indicted Williams last week on numerous charges of using his influence in exchange for opulent gifts, trips, and cash.

[**Click to read the federal indictment against Philly DA Seth Williams (pdf)**]

According to the indictment, Williams "solicited, accepted, and agreed to accept" gifts including round-trip trips to the Dominican Republic, Las Vegas, California, and Florida; Luis Vuitton clothing; a Jaguar XK8 convertible; thousands in cash, and more. And if this were not enough, Williams also stole money from his own adoptive mother.

Back in 2011, Williams orchestrated a grand jury to issue a report which made international headlines with its claims that numerous priests from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia committed sex abuse. Years later, however, we now know that Williams' grand jury report was completely bogus, and it destroyed the lives of numerous innocent men.

Msgr. William Lynn was imprisoned on the claims that he somehow "endangered the welfare of a child" whom he not only did not even know. His wrongful conviction has been overturned by appellate courts multiple times, and a judge finally ruled last Friday that Lynn was entitled to a new trial after Williams' office admittedly withheld evidence that could have exonerated Lynn.

Must-read at BigTrial.net:
Journalist Ralph Cipriano

In other words, the fix was in from the start. (By the way, this was something we observed six years ago – even before a jury was seated.)

The injustice that these men suffered was so outrageous that Cipriano's story even made the cover of Newsweek magazine.

And then there was Rev. James Brennan, who was accused of abuse from 20 years ago by Mark Bukowski, a serial criminal with a lengthy rap sheet which includes fraud and making up stories to the police. Brennan would be a free man today except for one boob on the jury in his trial who refused to acquit him, and the jury deadlocked 11-1. Last October, rather than risk facing a wrong conviction like his peers and face possible decades in jail for a crime he didn't commit, Brennan pleaded guilty to a measly second degree misdemeanor of simple assault.

In effect, Brennan's plea was an admission by Williams that Brennan was wholly innocent.

Now, as Cipiano reports, Williams himself is flat broke and needs a lawyer.

How fitting.

————————

[We would like to recommend to readers a new article by Ryan A. MacDonald over at TheseStoneWalls.com, "How SNAP Brought McCarthyism to American Catholics." Check it out.]

Finally busted for bogus journalism: Sabrina Erdely from Rolling Stone magazine

A jury has awarded $3 million to an administrator at the University of Virginia after Rolling Stone writer Sabrina Erdely defamed her in a bogus story Erdely wrote in 2014 about gang rape at a college fraternity.

However, as readers of this site already know, years before Erdely defamed the U-Va. administrator, she published a completely false and malicious article in 2011 about sex abuse in the Catholic Church in Philadelphia.

Shortly after its publication, Bill Donohue at the Catholic League published a lengthy blow-by-blow takedown of Erdely's hit piece.

In her 2011 article, Erdely relayed the bizarre claims of "Billy" – whom readers of this site know to be Florida resident Dan Gallagher – who claimed to have been raped, molested, and sodomized by some three different men – two priests and a Catholic school teacher, all of whom barely knew each other – years ago as an altar boy in Philly in the late 1990s.

Enter veteran journalist Ralph Cipriano at BigTrial.net. As we have repeatedly chronicled here at TheMediaReport.com, Cipriano has doggedly uncovered detailed information indicating that Gallagher's unbelievable claims were just that: unbelievable. The lives of these three innocent accused men were shattered by Erdely's reckless reporting. (For background on the Gallagher case, see this and this. Also, check out the latest from Cipriano.)

Now that a jury has affirmed that Erdely's tale of ceremonial gang rape at U-Va. was false, we hope that the mainstream media will finally take a similar close look at her preposterous 2011 story about abuse in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

We await.

Wrongly convicted: Philadelphia's Msgr. William J. Lynn

Msgr. William J. Lynn, who was convicted in kangaroo court proceedings in 2012 for "endangering the welfare of a child," is finally a free man after Pennsylvania's Supreme Court upheld the December 2015 reversal of his conviction by the state's Superior Court after Lynn had already spent nearly three years in prison.

Ralph Cipriano at BigTrial.net was the first to report the news. (See also his Newsweek piece.)

The decision means that it will now be up to Seth Williams, the buffoonish, publicity-hungry district attorney, whether to retry Lynn.

And while the mainstream media widely and gleefully reported Lynn's historic conviction with breathless headlines and hysterics, these same outlets have now gone silent after the appeals courts have reversed Lynn's conviction for the second time! For example:

• Laurie Goodstein and the New York Times, who happily reported Lynn's original conviction on its front page, have naturally not reported a single syllable about Lynn's new victory.

• The Philadelphia's own Inquirer relegated the news to the B section.

• Google News lists (as of this post) only four news outlets reporting the big news.

Msgr. Lynn might now be asking himself the question famously posed in 1987 by former U.S. Secretary of Labor Ray Donovan, who was acquitted after a similar ideologically driven witch hunt: "Which office do I go to to get my reputation back?"

[See TheMediaReport.com's full reporting on the Philadelphia abuse cases]

Journalist Ralph Cipriano continues the fight for justice and the falsely accused

During a confidential deposition over two full days in May and June 2014, Dan Gallagher – the Philadelphia native whose varying and preposterous tales of abuse as an altar boy in the late 1990s landed three Catholic priests and a school teacher in prison – stated more than 130 times that he could not remember some very basic facts about his claims.

That is just one of the many eye-popping new details appearing in this week's issue of Newsweek uncovered by veteran journalist Ralph Cipriano, who continues to doggedly pursue the cause for justice for the wrongfully incarcerated men. (For those who are new to the Philly story, we suggest background here and here.)

Simply unreal

According to Cipriano, Gallagher stated in his deposition that he could not remember telling his doctors and drug counselors in the past that he had been:

• sexually abused by a friend at age 6;
• sexually abused by a neighbor at 6;
• sexually abused by a teacher at age 7;
• sexually molested at 6 (or 8) by an unknown assailant;
• sexually molested at 8 (or 9) by a friend; and
• sexually abused at 9 by a 14-year-old boy.

And Gallagher admitted at the deposition that none of these prior allegations were true.

[Note: Graphic descriptions of abuse accusations follow]

Dan Gallagher celebrating
with a stogie

In addition, when Gallagher was asked about whether he remembered telling a drug counselor that his hands were tied during an alleged sexual assault by a priest, Gallagher simply replied, "I really don't remember what I told him."

"Were your hands ever tied up during any of the sexual assaults?" the questioner asked.

"No," Gallagher replied.

Remember that these admissions are in addition to many other facts that Cipriano has already uncovered, which call into question Gallagher's claims, such as:

• Gallagher has admitted that he lied when he said he worked as a paramedic and a "professional surfer" (yes, a professional surfer from Philadelphia);
• Even members of the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office itself did not believe Gallagher's wild claims and questioned whether they should even move forward with the case;
• An alternate juror even came forward after the trial in which Gallagher put two priests and a teacher in prison with the dramatic charge that the guilty verdicts were "insane," "incredible," and "a tragic miscarriage of justice."

Scientific evidence

Yet in his deposition, the one story that Gallagher did obstinately stick to was his wild drama of being raped by two priests and a schoolteacher.

Oh, and Gallagher did admit to being a drug dealer and being arrested a half dozen times for drugs and retail theft. [Check out a court summary of Gallagher's extensive arrest record.]

And as far as the oft-heard claim from victim advocates and Church-suing lawyers that "memory lapses" from Gallagher stem from the trauma of his sexual abuse, Cipriano quotes Dr. James I. Hudson, a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and the director of the biological psychiatry laboratory at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts, who declares:

"There is no legitimate scientific evidence that psychological trauma can cause the massive amount of inconsistencies and contradictions that is exhibited by Mr. Gallagher's reports of the allegations of sexual abuse."

Q.E.D.

And the Philly Inky remains silent

After Cipriano's second article about the case appeared last week in Newsweek – his first article was in January – TheMediaReport.com wrote to Philadelphia Inquirer Editor-in-chief Bill Marimow and other editors at the Inky to ask if there were any plans to finally expose this fraud to its readers in Philadelphia.

It would seem to be the least they could do after running scores and scores of front-page articles promoting Gallagher's dubious claims and giving free publicity to publicity-hound D.A. Seth Williams, who organized the witch hunt against the three priests and Catholic school teacher.

Not surprisingly, we have received no response.

See no evil: Philadelphia Inquirer editor-in-chief Bill Marimow

One would think that the scandal of a drug-addled Philadelphia man making false abuse accusations against multiple Catholic priests – all of whom were convicted and landed in prison, where one has already died – would merit at least a tiny mention in Philly's newspaper of record, the Philadelphia Inquirer. Heck, it was noteworthy enough to merit a huge cover story in Newsweek magazine only a couple weeks ago.

And indeed during the trials against these priests, the Inquirer gave wall-to-wall coverage with countless stories and hysterical headlines.

But the Inky's editor-in-chief, Bill Marimow, has made it clear that he has no interest in informing his readers about a fraud being perpetrated right in his own backyard against the Catholic Church.

[For readers unaware of the shocking story of the accuser's fraud against the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, here is one place to start.]

Handing the Inky a story

Journalist Ralph Cipriano

"[Marimow and the Inquirer] are staunchly in the pocket of the prosecution, serving as the D.A.'s press office," says Cipriano.

Cipriano reports that back in October 2014, he emailed Marimow with a "no strings attached" offer to give the Inquirer all of the grand jury transcripts and police files from the Philadelphia Church sex abuse cases that he had in his possession.

He even added that the Inquirer "could conduct their own investigation of the investigation of the church, and that grand jury report, and come to their own conclusions. It would have been a public service for the region, and for justice."

But Marimow had no interest in the story, showing a commitment to his own biases rather than the truth.

So while Marimow and the Inky fall over themselves to loudly trumpet each and every accusation against Catholic priests in Philadelphia from Church-suing contingency lawyers and careerist politicians – no matter how suspicious or flimsy – they staunchly refuse to acknowledge a false accusation even when they themselves have been party to promoting the fraud upon the public.

At the Inky, it seems, the truth is always second to its hatred of the Catholic Church.

Continuing the fight for truth and justice: Journalist Ralph Cipriano

If there were still any doubt about the criminal fraud committed against the Catholic Church in Philadelphia by D.A. Seth Williams and his publicity-seeking prosecutors, look no further than the eye-popping cover story this week in Newsweek by veteran journalist Ralph Cipriano.

Over the last few years on the blog BigTrial.net, Cipriano closely followed the trials against Catholic clergy which received widespread local and national attention.

The accuser at the center of it all, Dan Gallagher, claimed that during the 1998-1999 school year, when he was a 10-year-old altar boy in Philadelphia, he was serially raped and abused – sometimes for hours on end – by the late Fr. Charles Engelhardt, former Catholic school teacher Bernard Shero, and ex-priest Edward Avery, all of whom barely even knew each other.

The mainstream media wakes up

The $5 million man:
Accuser Danny Gallagher

Numerous times over the past several years Cipriano has written about a mountain of indisputable evidence indicating that Gallagher most certainly falsely accused the trio of Engelhardt, Shero, and Avery.

However, in his Newsweek piece, Cipriano expands the story even further. Cipriano now reveals details of a 40-page psychologist report concluding that because the "immature," "manipulative," and "hedonistic" Gallagher has admitted providing false information about his past repeatedly, there is no way to conclude "to a reasonable degree" that Gallagher has ever been abused by a priest, or by anyone in his life.

Indeed, it is difficult to imagine any clear-thinking person, not to mention 12 individuals sitting on a jury, believing Gallagher's crazy and unbelievable tales. The evidence for the convicted men’s innocence is beyond overwhelming:

• Even members of the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office itself did not believe Gallagher's wild claims and questioned whether they should even put Engelhardt and Shero on trial.
• Triple-accuser Gallagher has been arrested at least six times – once for possession of 56 bags of heroin – and has been in-and-out of some 23 drug re-habs.
  [Check out a court summary of Gallagher's extensive arrest record]
• Gallagher even explicitly told drug counselors that he had "no history of physical or sexual abuse."
• Gallagher has admitted that he lied when he said he worked as a paramedic and a "professional surfer" (yes, a professional surfer from Philadelphia);
• On three separate occasions, Gallagher told drug counselors that his older brother had been arrested for molestation. In truth, Gallagher's older brother, James Gallagher, is a recently licensed attorney in Pennsylvania and has never been arrested at all.
• An alternate juror even came forward after the trial with the dramatic charge that the guilty verdicts against Engelhardt and Shero were "insane," "incredible," and "a tragic miscarriage of justice."
• Fr. Engelhardt easily passed a polygraph test denying that he abused Danny or anyone, and the test administrator was a guy often hired by the Philly D.A.'s Office itself.
• Ex-priest Avery not only passed a polygraph test indicating that he had never abused Gallagher, but he also told authorities he never even met him before. In addition, records later revealed that Gallagher never even served as an altar boy at Mass with Avery, as Gallagher had claimed.
• Fr. Engelhardt previously waved his fifth amendment rights and voluntarily appeared before the Philadelphia grand jury, at which he asserted his innocence and testified, "I have no knowledge of who the person is. If he's sitting in this room today, I can't pick him out … I found it to be a very humbling thing to be called on the phone … when you know, there was no truth or that was something unrealistic that was happening to you."
• And as we have relayed before, Gallagher has told separate tales of abuse by the trio of men that not only defy any reasonable belief but have varied wildly over time.

Paging Rolling Stone magazine

Discredited – again
Sabrina Rubin Erdely

Cipriano reminds readers that Gallagher's bogus rape story was the subject of a splashy 2011 story in Rolling Stone magazine by Sabrina Rubin Erdely.

The crusading Erdely wrote, with no shortage of lurid detail, of how Gallagher, described only as a "sweet and gentle kid," was repeatedly raped and sodomized by the three men and forced to perform stripteases after Mass.

Does Erdely's name sound familiar? Well, she is the same Erdely who wrote an incredible, 9000-word piece in 2014 for Rolling Stone about "Jackie," a University of Virginia co-ed who claimed she was gang raped by seven men at a fraternity party. The story received huge national attention.

However, after the Washington Post did a little digging, the Jackie story was exposed as a hoax. Rolling Stone retracted the story, and defamation lawsuits are currently pending.

The question now is: Will Rolling Stone retract its bogus Gallagher story?

Many kudos to Newsweek for publishing Cipriano's piece and helping get the truth out about this egregious miscarriage of justice.

Wrongly convicted: Msgr. William Lynn

For the second time, a Pennsylvania Superior Court has overturned the historic conviction of Philadelphia's Msgr. William J. Lynn and ordered a new trial for the wrongly convicted priest. In June 2012, a jury unbelievably determined that Lynn had supposedly "endangered the welfare of a child" even though he never had any supervision over any minors.

In its ruling the court also blasted Judge Teresa M. Sarmina – who was cited numerous times for bigoted and warped rulings during Lynn's 2012 trial –

[**Click to read the Pennsylvania Superior Court ruling (12/22/15) (pdf)**]

As always, we encourage readers to get the full story – without the mainstream media bias – from veteran journalist Ralph Cipriano. Check out Cipriano's latest here and here.

Yes, Virginia … It's all about the money.

The old expression goes: "Whenever anybody says, 'It's not about the money,' it's about the money."

No other aphorism is more fitting to the case of the Philadelphia accuser who is now suing the Catholic Church even though he swore repeatedly at two criminal trials that he was not seeking money in claiming that a priest abused him many years ago.

Yet another crock revealed

Pinocchio – again

And at the first trial, in February 2014, the accuser specifically answered the question whether he was making an abuse claim in order to score cash. "I have a full-time job," the accuser said at the time. "I don't need money. I have a very successful career."

Indeed, during closing arguments Philly Assistant D.A. Kristen Kemp then emphatically told the jury, "This was never about money."

Then, in the second trial, in February 2015, the accuser repeated, "I don't need to [sue for money], I have a pretty successful career."

And once again, ADA Kemp angrily claimed during closing arguments, "He (the accuser) wants nothing from this man (Rev. McCormick)."

Now, only six months after the end of the second trial, the accuser – who has enjoyed anonymity in the media – has filed a major lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Philadelphia seeking big cash.

And yet another lie

Not only does it appear that the accuser misled two juries and the public about his intention to seek money, it appears that he also lied in his lawsuit as well.

In his lawsuit against the Church, the accuser claims that Rev. McCormick failed a polygraph test relating to questions whether or not he had ever abused anyone in his life.

In fact, as McCormick's lawyer asserts, the retired FBI agent who administered the test concluded "the exact opposite."

"I had Father McCormick take a polygraph exam prior to trial at his request," McCormick lawyer Trevan Borum has said. "He passed with flying colors."

And the lies just keep comin'.

[HT: Ralph Cipriano, BigTrial.net.]