No questions, no verdict on 10th day of clergy sex abuse trial deliberations

An odd thing happened Monday during the 10th day of jury deliberations in the clergy sex abuse trial.

Nothing.

No questions from the jury, no readings of testimony, no high-decibel arguments between the lawyers and judge.

Instead, for the first time in more than a week, the seven men and five women jurors appeared to work steadily — and silently — toward a verdict in the landmark case against two Archdiocese of Philadelphia priests. They met for nearly six hours of closed-door talks but offered no clues to their progress.

Common Pleas Court Judge M. Teresa Sarmina called the defendants and lawyers to her courtroom at 4 p.m. and took the bench merely to tell the lawyers: "They have asked to leave for the day."

Sarmina dismissed the jury with orders to return Tuesday morning. Prosecutors and the lawyers for Msgr. William J. Lynn and the Rev. James J. Brennan had nothing to say and left.

The jury has deliberated roughly 36 hours since it got the case June 1.

Lynn, 61, the first church official nationwide to be tried for covering up clergy sex abuse, is accused of recommending that Brennan and another priest, Edward Avery, be allowed to live or work in parishes despite signs that they might abuse minors. He has denied the allegations, contending that he tried more than any other church official to isolate pedophile priests.

Brennan, 48, has denied charges that he tried to rape a 14-year-old boy in 1996, when he was on leave from the archdiocese and living in a West Chester apartment. Avery, now defrocked, pleaded guilty to assaulting an altar boy and is serving 2½ to five years in prison.