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.
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