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Man found not guilty in beating of priest he says raped him years ago

By Tracey Kaplan, San Jose Mercury News –

SAN JOSE, Calif. — A jury Thursday acquitted a San Francisco man of felony charges that he beat up and abused the cleric he says brutally raped him decades ago.

The jury found Will Lynch not guilty of felony elder abuse and felony assault, and not guilty of misdemeanor elder abuse. It deadlocked 8-4 in favor of a conviction on misdemeanor assault.

(PHOTO: Will Lynch and his attorneys, Pat Harris, left, and Paul Mones, right, react after a jury acquitted Lynch of felony charges that he beat up and abused the cleric he says brutally raped him decades ago. Photo taken on Thursday, July 5, 2012, in San Jose, California. )

The verdict was a triumph for Lynch, now 44, and his supporters, who faithfully packed the Santa Clara County courtroom as the assault trial — normally a brief event — stretched over three weeks. From accusations of prosecutorial misconduct to a confrontation in the hallway between the priest and one of his alleged molestation victims, the trial was roiled by disruptions.

“My heart leaps,” said Will Lynch’s younger sister, Amanda Lynch, of her reaction when she heard the verdict.

The prosecution contended that on May 10, 2010, Lynch, then 42, beat up the Rev. Jerold Lindner, who was 65, at the Sacred Heart retirement center in Los Gatos to avenge the priest’s alleged molestation of him and his brother in the 1970s on a camping trip in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

Lindner was never prosecuted for allegedly molesting the Lynch brothers and at least nine other children because the statute of limitations had run out by the time they reported the alleged crimes.

From the first, Lynch refused to negotiate a plea deal, a decision vindicated by the jury. Not only was he acquitted, but he also achieved his two other goals — drawing national attention to the anguish of clergy sex-abuse survivors and pillorying Lindner, the victim of the beating, whom the Jesuits list as a child molester.

Prosecutor Vicki Gemetti had argued that while she believed Lindner molested the brothers, his repugnant act didn’t justify Lynch’s “vigilante” attack. The beating left the priest bruised and bloodied, with two cuts to his face and ear.

But Lynch’s attorneys essentially told the jury of nine men and three women that the wrong man was on trial.

“The DA says no man is above the law, but there is one man who has been above the law, who sits in a vineyard, with medical care and cars,” Harris said, referring to Lindner.

Lynch was charged with two felonies that together carried a maximum sentence of four years — assault by means of force likely to produce great bodily injury and elder abuse under circumstances likely to produce great bodily harm or death.

The jury also had the option of finding Lynch guilty of the lesser-included crimes of simple assault and a less serious form of elder abuse — both of which are misdemeanors punishable by up to a year in jail.

Lindner testified last month about what he called a “vicious” and painful attack. But Judge David A. Cena instructed the Santa Clara County jury to ignore Lindner’s testimony, including his denial of the alleged molestation, after the Jesuit refused to answer any more questions on the grounds it might incriminate him.

The development disappointed Lynch and his supporters, who had hoped to watch Lindner squirm during what was certain to be a scathing cross-examination about his allegedly checkered history.

Without acknowledging any wrongdoing, the Jesuits paid Lynch and his brother about $187,000 each after legal fees in 1998 to settle a lawsuit they filed claiming Lindner had raped Lynch and made him have oral sex with his 4-year-old brother. The order also paid another camper more than $1.5 million to settle her lawsuit. In 2007, one of Lindner’s nieces sued the Jesuits for Lindner’s alleged sexual abuse of her as a child and settled for $786,000.

But the molestation and lack of prosecution continued to eat away at Lynch. He testified he confronted Lindner in hopes he would sign a confession to sexually molesting him and 4-year-old brother on the camping trip organized by a religious group.

He said he began pummeling Lindner after the priest refused to sign a confession and “leered” at him the same way he did during the alleged molestation decades ago.

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