Testimony

Seven-year-old Megan Kanka did not die quickly. The child "was alive for some time" during the attack that left her dead within an hour, and she was sexually assaulted before she died, a forensic pathologist testified yesterday in the trial of the man charged in the killing. Testifying on the 12th day of the prosecution's case against twice-convicted sex offender Jesse K. Timmendequas, Mercer County Medical Examiner Raafat Ahmad left a disturbing image of the last hour of the life of the child, whose partially clad body was found in the weeds in Mercer County Park on July 30, 1994.

This weekend a group of men will gather at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary to how learn to throw a spiral, make a three-point shot and hit a long ball — and to resist homosexual urges. Courage, a Catholic group that encourages people with same-sex attraction to remain celibate, is holding its 13th annual sports camp in which "men physically compete on the field while enriching their souls through a daily regimen of prayer, confessions, mass, and the Liturgy of the Hours," according to the group's website.

The Inquirer on Friday posted on its website, Philly.com, the full testimony of Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua before the grand jury investigating sexual abuse in the Catholic church. To read it, go to: www.philly.com/testimony There, the cardinal's testimony is contained in 10 separate documents, one for each of his appearances before the panel in 2003 and 2004. The testimony was referred to in the Grand Jury's 2005 report. Bevilacqua has never been charged with a crime.

Raising their voices and waving their arms, defense lawyers yesterday hammered away at Howard Beach attack survivor Cedric Sandiford but were unable to shake the major parts of his story. In a blistering cross-examination that could be heard in the hallways of Queens Supreme Court, the lawyers pointed out minor inconsistencies in Sandiford's testimony and conflicts with testimony from other witnesses. But Sandiford, often outshouting the lawyers, stood firm that he, Michael Griffith, 23, and Timothy Grimes, 19, were attacked by 10 to 12 white teens armed with baseball bats and tree limbs last Dec. 20. Griffith was killed when he was hit by a car on the Belt Parkway while trying to flee.

The trial testimony of a New York City man who survived the Howard Beach racial attack contradicts stories he told to police and a newspaper reporter after the incident, the defense charged yesterday. "The testimony flatly contradicts what he said within a month or so of the incident," defense lawyer Ronald Rubinstein said after witness Cedric Sandiford completed his testimony in Queens Supreme Court. "Was he telling the truth then, or is he telling the truth now?" Rubinstein asked.

An Army private shot a Willingboro store clerk because she would not cooperate during a robbery in 1985, according to testimony yesterday in Burlington County Superior Court. Jacinto Koger "Joey" Hightower, 23, of Pageant Lane, Willingboro, is accused of fatally shooting Cynthia Barlieb, 25, of Hazelwood Circle, Willingboro, during a robbery attempt at a Cumberland Farms store on July 7, 1985. No money was taken from the cash register. Hightower could face the death penalty if the jury finds him guilty.

A state police scientist had no basis for concluding in court that his laboratory tests showed gunshot residue on one of Terry McCracken's hands, McCracken's attorney contended in a motion filed yesterday in Delaware County Common Pleas Court. The motion is the latest - and probably the last - of several that lawyer John G. McDougall has filed requesting a new trial for McCracken, 22, who was convicted of second-degree murder, robbery and conspiracy in connection with the killing of David Johnston, 71, during a robbery in March 1983 at Kelly's Deli in Collingdale.

After testimony from 105 people, the last witness stepped down yesterday in the marathon federal corruption trial of former State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo, setting the stage for closing arguments next week. Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert A. Zauzmer is expected to spend most of Monday delivering the prosecution's closing, four months after fellow prosecutor John J. Pease gave the opening address Oct. 22. After defense lawyers Dennis J. Cogan and Edwin J. Jacobs Jr. give their closing addresses, Zauzmer will deliver a rebuttal.

An instructor for the state Human Relations Commission has contradicted testimony given last week during a hearing on a former Cheltenham Township police officer's claim that his dismissal from the force was racially motivated. Newtown, Bucks County, Police Chief Martin Duffy labeled as untrue testimony by a Cheltenham police sergeant that former police officer Rick Booker, who is black, had fallen asleep during a seminar in June on race relations. Booker, 35, is seeking reinstatement to the police force.

The Supreme Court agreed yesterday to try to resolve the highly sensitive conflict between the welfare of young children and the rights of alleged sex offenders in the nation's steadily increasing number of child-abuse cases. The justices will decide by July whether a defendant's constitutional right to confront accusers face to face in open court may be limited when the accusers are children. Child psychiatrists believe that such a confrontation can be terrifying for a child, especially when the adult is a relative and the accusation involves sexual misconduct.

Msgr. William J. Lynn took the witness stand at his landmark trial Wednesday, asserting he "did my best" to weed out sexually abusive priests and battling with a prosecutor who painted him as a liar more concerned with protecting the church than children. During hours of tense testimony in a Common Pleas courtroom, Lynn tried to counter charges that he spent a dozen years burying sex-abuse claims and shuffling accused priests around the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. He repeatedly told jurors that his bosses, notably Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua, directed the church's response to child-sex abuse allegations, and he denied knowingly putting children in harm's way. "I thought I was helping people," Lynn said.

Latia Jones, a 21-year-old mother, was asked by her GED program to write an essay about her future. She wanted to become a forensic psychologist so she could understand what motivates people to commit crimes and possibly help juveniles in trouble, she wrote. She described her own youth, of being sent to foster homes, group homes, and at least one juvenile facility. She also cited the "outrageous crime rates" in Philadelphia. "Today it is May 1, 2012," she added, "and the homicide rate is 122. " Monday night, Jones and a 21-year-old male friend were added to that grim tally.

Donte Johnson is 20 years old, but the way he thinks, communicates, and copes with problems is more in line with the mind of child, according to a forensic neuropsychologist who testified in Johnson's murder trial Monday. Johnson, accused in the June 2010 rape and slaying of Sabina Rose O'Donnell, has an IQ in the 70s, which places him on the borderline of what is considered "mentally retarded," said Gerald Cooke, who administered a series of tests to Johnson this year. "He's basically in that 11- to 12-year-old range in terms of his intellectual functioning," Cooke said.

GREENSBORO, N.C. - Shortly before his 2011 indictment on corruption charges, John Edwards called the elderly heiress whose money helped hide his pregnant mistress and asked for $3 million more, a witness testified Monday at the trial of the former presidential candidate. Librarian Tony L. Willis testified his boss, 101-year-old Rachel "Bunny" Mellon, sought his help in drafting a letter to the politician. Willis said Mellon told him she received a call from Edwards last year seeking $3 million to help him launch the next phase of his life.

Just four years out of the seminary, the Rev. Sylwester Wiejata was rapidly making a name for himself. Unfortunately for officials of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, the reputation of the young, darkly handsome Wiejata was as a ladies man — and one with an eye for married women. On Tuesday, a Philadelphia Common Pleas Court jury listened to the grand jury testimony of Msgr. William J. Lynn as he tried to explain his alleged failure to act as Wiejata's sexual overtures went from married women to single women in their 20s and, ultimately in August 2000, allegations that he had fondled the 13-year-old daughter of a woman with whom he had an affair.

OSLO, Norway - They gathered by the tens of thousands, aiming to face down terror with the power of music. Inspired by a Facebook-organized protest, Norwegians flocked to public squares across the country Thursday, ignored the drenching rain and lifted their voices in song. Their target: far-right fanatic Anders Behring Breivik, now on trial for a bomb-and-shooting rampage that killed 77 people. Their weapon: a children's tune that he claims has been used to brainwash the country's youth into supporting immigration.

GREENSBORO, N.C. - Andrew Young was once much more than an aide to John Edwards. The linchpin of the government's criminal case against the former presidential candidate spent long hours driving to and from political events with the rising Democratic star. They attended basketball games together to root for the University of North Carolina and buddied around at Edwards' beach house. Young was even tasked with buying Christmas presents for the Edwards children. "We were just North Carolina boys and had a lot in common," Young testified Monday.

For University of Pennsylvania president Amy Gutmann, bringing more than 50,000 personal Holocaust testimonials to campus is a personal milestone. The video testimonials were compiled by the University of Southern California's Shoah Foundation Institute, founded by the director Steven Spielberg in 1994 to collect and preserve the testimony of survivors. Gutmann's father fled Nazi Germany in 1934 and eventually settled in the United States, where she was born. She first talked to Spielberg about the possibility of bringing the collection to Penn about a year ago. "I have spent some hours listening to them, and for me, personally it's just incredibly moving and important," Gutmann said in an interview.

OSLO, Norway - Norwegians who lost loved ones on Utoya island relived the horror Friday as far-right fanatic Anders Behring Breivik described in harrowing detail how he gunned down teenagers as they fled in panic or froze before him, paralyzed with fear. Survivors and victims' relatives hugged and sobbed during the graphic testimony. "I'm going back to my hometown tonight. My husband, he's going to drive me out to the sea, and I'm going to take a walk there and I'm going to scream my head off," said Christin Bjelland, whose teenage son survived the attack.

A West Virginia judge has ordered a Catholic church official formerly from Philadelphia to testify at the clergy sex-abuse trial now under way in the city. The ruling late Thursday by Ohio County Circuit Judge Ronald E. Wilson ends a weeklong stalemate over testimony by Msgr. Kevin Michael Quirk. Philadelphia prosecutors want Quirk to testify about his questioning of the Rev. James J. Brennan during a 2008 canonical trial at which Quirk served one of three church judges.