Breaking News: According to Rocco Palmo: Lynn acquitted of one count of conspiring with former priest Brennan of endangering children. Lynn found guilty on one count.
After 12 days of jury deliberations,Monsignor William Lynn, one of former Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua’s top lieutenants in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, knows his future. A Philadlephia jury
Lynn had been charged with two counts of endangering the welfare of a child by allowing dangerous priests to continue in the ministry in roles in which they had access to children, and one count of conspiracy to protect a priest accused of abuse. The difficulty with which the jury appeared to have in determining Monsignor Lynn’s guilt reflects the unprecedented nature of the criminal charges. The Lynn case marks the first time a US Catholic priest faced criminal charges for endangering children, not by physically or sexually abusing children but rather, allowing it to happen and conspiring to cover-up for those priests who did sexually abuse children.
According to Philly.com, “On Wednesday, jurors declared they were deadlocked on all but one count. Common Pleas Court Judge M. Teresa Sarmina instructed them to keep talking.
Lynn, 61, was the first church official nationwide to be tried for enabling or covering up clergy-sex abuse. He was accused of recommending that Brennan and another priest, Edward Avery, be allowed to live or work in parishes in the 1990s despite signs that they might abuse minors.”

Takeda Pharmaceuticals, Inc. diabetes drug Actos has already been linked to an increased risk of bladder cancer. Now, there’s a report in the Archives of Internal Medicine that has shown a connection between Actos and vision loss. Actos, the brand name for pioglitazone,is prescribed to treat Type 2 diabetes (a condition in which the body does not use insulin normally and therefore cannot control the amount of sugar in the blood).
A little less than a year ago, the FDA issued a health warning concerning Actos. The FDA warning noted that diabetes patients who’ve taken Actos for more than a year are at an increased risk of bladder cancer. Two days prior to the FDA warning, Actos was banned in two European countries.
There is already an established Actos MDL (multidistrict litigation)which will handle the numerous Actos side effects lawsuits that have been filed as well as those new Actos lawsuits to be filed in the future. A recent MDL court ruling will allow new Actos lawsuits to be consolidated in the Actos MDL in a quicker, more efficient fashion.

Johnson & Johnson has reportedly agreed to settle a federal probe by the US Department of Justice for $2.2 billion, nearly the same amount as Pfizer paid in 2009 for similar false marketing allegations. Both drug makers have been subject to federal investigations concerning allegedly false marketing of drugs. In the case of Johnson & Johnson, the probe targeted Risperdal, the company’s antipsychotic drug. The deal would end an 8-year investigation into the company’s marketing practices.
According to a report in the Business Journal, “It would include a criminal penalty of as much as $600 million, as well as a misdemeanor plea, according to a Bloomberg report quoting unnamed sources. The deal would also resolve civil claims against J&J, alleging kickbacks to Omnicare Inc. (NYSE: OCR), a health care services company that dispenses drugs in nursing homes.”

Ethicon, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson and manufacturer of transvaginal meshes, has announced the voluntary recall of all their transvaginal mesh medical devices. The recall comes in the wake of hundreds of transvaginal mesh lawsuits filed due to mesh failures and the need for revision surgery to correct the medical problems caused by the transvaginal mesh products. In recalling the vaginal mesh, Ethicon sent a letter to Judges Joseph R. Goodwin and Mary E. Stanley, both of whom are presiding over the multidistrict litigation consolidated in West Virginia. The letter described the recall as a halt in the “commercialization” of the vaginal mesh. In the letter, the company informed the Justices that they had already told the FDA of their decision to halt “commercialization” and requested from the government agency a 120 day timeline in which to complete the recall.
Ethicon is not the only transvaginal mesh medical device company to have experienced problems with the transvaginal mesh. While all the mesh products are similar in design and purpose, other companies selling transvaginal meshes have also been embroiled in mesh lawsuits. Those companies include American Medical Systems, Inc. and C.R. Bard, Inc. Both of those companies are involved in multidistrict litigation concerning transvaginal mesh lawsuits in separate judicial venues.
As a member of these MDL (multidistrict litigation)steering committees, I know that many women have been seriously injured by faulty transvaginal mesh products. The decision by Ethicon is a welcome sign so that more women will not undergo the pain and suffering caused by these defective medical devices.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York and President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, wasn’t silent for long. As news spread concerning his decision to pay priests accused of the sexual abuse of minors to leave the priesthood, Dolan was uncharacteristically silent, at least for a few days. When he spoke this past Sunday after services, he was full of fire and brimstone. Unfortunately, the recipients of his attack, were the same old messengers-the NY Times and the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests. He even went so far as to say,”SNAP has no credibility whatsoever.” Of course, that’s what public figures seem to do when the facts don’t support their version of reality. It may remind some of Richard Nixon’s infamous line to the press after losing the the California gubernatorial election in 1962 when he said in total self-pity “You won’t have Nixon to kick around anymore.”
The reality is such a tactic didn’t work for Nixon in 1962 and most likely won’t work for Dolan in 2012. The public doesn’t like self-centered self-pity, especially when they’re dead wrong. Dolan could have said he made a grave mistake. He could have said such funds should have gone to the survivors of the abuse. But sadly, he chose the Nixonian road. Who knows maybe Dolan looked at history (he does have an advanced degree in the field) and said to himself, “Nixon was elected six years later, what the hell.” Who know what he was thinking. What we do know is that Dolan was caught doing something that further injures the survivors of sexual abuse. The NY Times and SNAP were reporting facts, nothing more than what they should be doing.

This doesn’t look good. It’s not about the Archdiocese of Milwaukee either. It’s really about the person who was in charge of the Archdiocese in 2003 when the Catholic Church decided to offer those priests accused of sexually abusing minors to leave the priesthood. That person happens to be Timothy Cardinal Dolan, the Cardinal Archbishop of New York and the darling of political conservatives everywhere. Up until this story broke this week, Dolan was the “Great White Hope” who was charged with taking on the Obama Administration over contraception, abortion and healthcare. The media loves him, some Catholics think he might be the first American pope, and his brother bishops have enough confidence in him that they named him to be President of the conference of Catholic Bishops. The sordid details just now emerging from Milwaukee, thanks in large part to the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests who courageously called attention to this story, Dolan will now have to explain how it served the best interests of society and the Church in paying for accused priests to go away quietly. It would be difficult not to interpret the offering of hush money in anything but cynical terms. Dolan will surely attempt to get in front of this story, given his well-publicized talent at media relations. But, even for him, this is going to be a tough one. This is more than a PR snafu. This is a wound on the level of credibility and integrity. He’s got some explaining to do. This indeed doesn’t look good.

With the news over the weekend that the Pope’s personal butler had been arrested for allegedly stealing confidential Vatican documents, rumors began to swirl that perhaps there’s much more to the story than a wayward personal valet of the Pope. After all, most media outlets including Catholic media have noted that such a deception would have had to have involved “higher ups” that had an intimate knowledge of church politics and governance. Some have wondered publicly if the theft has something to do with the beleaguered Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone who’s been linked to the sexual abuse scandal involving deceased Legionaires of Christ founder Marcial Maciel. Some of the documents found in the butler’s residence involved the Legionaires and has led to speculation that the Vatileaks scandal has ties to money and sex abuse. Time will tell.

Kansas City prosecutors have petitioned a judge to add a second criminal charge in addition to the pending charge against Kansas City-St. Joseph Catholic Bishop Robert Finn. This new criminal would involved failure to report suspicions of child abuse.
According to the Belleville News Democrat, “Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker said in a news release that the original charge covered events from December 2010 to May 2011. The new charge splits that span into two separate time frames.
The first period would cover December 2010 to February 2011, a span in which the church learned of the photographs. During this time, Ratigan also attempted suicide and was sent for medical treatment. The second period would begin Feb. 11, 2011, the date Finn sent Ratigan a letter outlining restrictions on his conduct.”

The Better Pharmaceuticals and Devices for Children Act, sponsored by Rhode Island Senator Jack Reed, has passed the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. The bill is designed to drugs and medical devices designed for children safer by strengthening safety regulations and oversight.
The bill now heads to the full Senate for a vote. If the bill passes and is signed into law by the President, enforcement will become the key issue if children are to be protected from dangerous drugs and/or harmful medical devices.
Too bad we haven’t made this much progress with pharmaceutical and medical devices for adults.

Recently installed Archbishop Charles Chaput has announced the fate of 8 of 37 priests whose files the Archdiocese is reviewing regarding allegations of sexual abuse. The Archdiocese of Philadelphia announced today that five of the eight will be permanently suspended from active ministry. (The MSNBC headline mistakenly read “Priests Defrocked”. Only the Vatican may laicize a priest.) It is widely thought the Archdiocese will petition the Vatican for their laicization. The story has captured headlines less for the actual event than how Chaput’s predecessor had handled these cases. When Justin Cardinal Rigali was the Archbishop of Philadelphia he famously announced that no priest in the Archdiocese who was suspected of abuse was engaged in active ministry. A later investigation found this to be false. The news comes in the midst of the criminal trial of a top priest in Philadelphia who is charged with child endangerment for not intervening in similar child sex abuse cases to protect children.