The star witness in the Philadelphia D.A.’s ongoing witch-hunt against the Catholic Church has been totally discredited.
The D.A.’s office had relied heavily on the incredulous claims of Danny Gallagher, a.k.a. “Billy Doe,” to send three priests and a Catholic school teacher to prison.
But retired Detective Joseph Walsh—the prosecution’s own lead investigator into Gallagher’s lurid tales of being violently sexually abused—has filed a 12 page affidavit exposing Gallagher’s claims as a pack of lies. Walsh recounts—as he has done before—how prosecutors repeatedly blew off his warnings about Gallagher’s credibility, such was their zeal to nail these men.
Walsh wrote his affidavit on behalf of Bernard Shero, the former Catholic school teacher now serving 8-16 years in jail based on Gallagher’s claims. But the affidavit is also being used by lawyers for Msgr. William Lynn, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia official convicted of endangering the welfare of a child (he was never accused of abusing anyone). Msgr. Lynn’s conviction has been overturned three times, but Philadelphia D.A. Seth Williams—who is on the verge of going to the slammer himself for bribery, extortion and fraud—continues to pursue the case against him.
It is time to end this travesty once and for all. Walsh’s affidavit has exposed not only the flagrant lies of the prosecution’s star witness, but also the depth of corruption in the Philadelphia judicial system.
