William Brennan

DURING THREE hours of emotional and sometimes contentious testimony, a former Bucks County altar boy on Wednesday described how a priest in the landmark child-sex-abuse and conspiracy trial molested him during an overnight visit when he was 14. The man, now 30, broke down several times recounting a 1996 assault by the Rev. James J. Brennan that he said plunged him into a spiral of drugs and crime and still haunts him. He said Brennan, his...

For a lying, scheming criminal and junkie, he cleaned up well, and, under bruising cross-examination, more than held his own. If I had to score Round One of the most important testimony to date in the trial concerning sex abuse and conspiracy in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, I'd give it to the beleaguered - yet believable - 30-year-old victim staring at his alleged abuser in court. "Mark," as he was labeled in the 2011 grand jury report, is the Bucks County man charging a criminal breach of trust by the Rev. James J. Brennan, a priest and family friend he thought of as an uncle.

For a second day, the lawyer for an Archdiocese of Philadelphia priest battled Thursday with a man who claimed the priest molested him when he was 14, once suggesting the accuser concocted the allegation because his mother had been spending so much time with the cleric. "What better way to get the subject of her attention out of your life than to come up with a story?" said the attorney, William Brennan. The question came amid a tense cross-examination as the lawyer sought to expose cracks, not just in the allegation but in the landmark abuse and endangerment case against his client, the Rev. James J. Brennan (no relation)

During three hours of emotional and sometimes contentious testimony, a former Bucks County altar boy Wednesday described how a priest in the landmark child-sex abuse and conspiracy trial molested him during an overnight visit when he was 14. The man, now 30, broke down several times recounting the alleged 1996 assault by the Rev. James J. Brennan that he said plunged him into a spiral of drugs and crime and still haunts him. He said Brennan,...

During three hours of emotional and sometimes contentious testimony, a former Bucks County altar boy Wednesday described how a priest in the landmark child-sex abuse and conspiracy trial molested him during an overnight visit when he was 14. The man, now 30, broke down several times recounting the alleged 1996 assault by the Rev. James J. Brennan that he said plunged him into a spiral of drugs and crime and still haunts him. He said Brennan,...

It was one of the most graphic details in a grand jury report filled with uncomfortable passages: A sentence on Page 37 stating that after the Rev. James J. Brennan anally raped a 14-year-old, the priest remained inside his body as the boy cried himself to sleep. Yet in Monday's opening statements at the long-awaited clergy sex-abuse trial in Common Pleas Court, both the prosecution and a defense attorney offered a sharply sanitized version of that night, which casts doubt on the case against Brennan and could weaken the conspiracy charge against Msgr.

T WO OF THE three Catholic priests who will go on trial next week in the clergy-child-abuse case are themselves being victimized by their troubled accusers, defense attorneys said yesterday during a pretrial hearing. The two former altar boys who allege that they were raped in the 1990s by the Rev. James Brennan, 48, and defrocked priest Edward Avery, 69, are longtime drug addicts with criminal records who have made false allegations hoping to improve their situations, attorneys for the two priests said.

THREE STRIKES and that's it. Sayonara! The state Supreme Court yesterday canned Philadelphia Traffic Court Judge Willie F. Singletary, suspending him without pay after he allegedly showed a woman cellphone pictures of his genitalia two weeks ago. But this isn't the first time Singletary has made headlines. In 2007 his driver's license was suspended for unpaid tickets, and two years later he was reprimanded for promising favors in exchange for campaign donations. Yesterday, the Supreme Court ordered that Singletary be "relieved of any and all judicial and administrative responsibilities as a judge of the Philadelphia Traffic Court.

Three strikes and that's it. Sayonara! The state Supreme Court canned Philadelphia Traffic Court Judge Willie F. Singletary on Thursday, suspending him without pay after he allegedly showed a woman cellphone pictures of his genitalia two weeks ago. But this isn't the first time Singletary has made headlines, in 2007 his driver's license was suspended for unpaid tickets and two years later he was reprimanded for promising favors in exchange...