A judge on Monday morning tossed out the conviction and sentencing of the Rev. Hugh Lang, concluding that the Catholic priest received an unfair trial last year when he was convicted on charges he sexually assaulted an 11-year-old boy in 2001.
“I’m going to grant a new trial,” said Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Anthony Mariani, who took over the case from Judge Mark Tranquilli, who presided over the trial last year. “I do not believe this was a fair trial.”
After Father Lang’s conviction but before his sentencing, Judge Tranquilli was assigned administrative duties pending investigation into alleged racially offensive statements, which were not at issue in this case.
Judge Mariani ruled that his predecessor erred in allowing the prosecution to submit evidence that Father Lang searched for defense attorneys on the Internet when a Pennsylvania grand jury was about to release a mammoth report on sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.
The prosecution argued that Father Lang showed consciousness of guilt when he conducted the search, but Father Lang’s new lawyer filed a post-sentence motion asking the verdict be vacated on the grounds that the evidence never should have been submitted. Judge Mariani agreed with case law saying that all people, innocent or guilty, have the right to search for and receive legal help, and that can’t be used against them to argue that they were guilty.
Judge Mariani had sentenced the 89-year-old retired priest last month to nine to nearly 24 months in jail but delayed implementation of the sentence pending Monday’s hearing on unfinished business related to the case, given that both he and Father Lang’s new lawyer were new to the case.
Father Lang was the former superintendent of schools for the Diocese of Pittsburgh.
After Monday’s hearing, Father Lang was embraced in a courthouse hallway by many of the 20 or so supporters, including at least two priests, who had come to the hearing in his support. He declined to comment.
The office of District Attorney Stephen Zappala Jr. said it would appeal.
“Our office feels badly for the victim and the victim’s family given that this case did not proceed to sentencing as expected,” spokesman Mike Manko said. “We believe today’s decision is contrary to the law and we will be filing a commonwealth appeal to Superior Court.”
The alleged victim, now 30 and residing overseas, and his parents were visibly dismayed when Judge Mariani announced his decision on Monday.
“Father Lang has been living a life of freedom for 20 years without any consequences for what he did to my son, and that’s probably time he didn’t deserve,” the man’s father said after the court hearing.
The accuser testified in the November trial that Father Lang assaulted him at age 11 after the boy made a joke at his expense during a summer program for altar servers at St. Therese of Lisieux Parish in Munhall, where Father Lang was pastor at the time.
The man testified that Father Lang took him to an isolated basement room, forced him to strip, took a photograph of the naked boy and forced the boy to use his hand to perform a sex act on the priest. A former schoolmate of the accuser testified that his friend told him during high school he had been assaulted by a priest at St. Therese.
Father Lang took the stand at the trial and denied all the charges.
If the case does get a retrial, prosecutors could opt to retry Father Lang on some of the charges, but not the most serious one.
The reversal came after Father Lang obtained a new lawyer after his conviction and shortly before his sentencing. That lawyer, Robert Mielnicki, filed post-sentence motions seeking to have the case dismissed.
Even before the judge tossed out the entire conviction, both the prosecutor and the defense lawyer agreed that the most serious charge of which the priest was convicted, a felony count of unlawful contact with a minor, was filed too late under the statute of limitations.
That meant that, at minimum, Father Lang’s sentence was going to be reduced on Monday.
He had also been convicted on five misdemeanors: one count of indecent exposure, three counts of indecent assault and corruption of the morals of a minor.
But Mr. Mielnicki successfully got those overturned as well.
He challenged Judge Tranquilli’s allowing the prosecution to introduce evidence based on a police search of Father Lang’s computer.
Police, carrying out a search warrant, found that in July 2018, shortly before the release of the highly anticipated Pennsylvania grand jury report, Father Lang had searched for Pittsburgh criminal defense attorneys. At the time, it was known that some of the priests’ names had been redacted from the report. Father Lang’s name isn’t in the grand jury report, and none of the redacted names appear near where Father Lang’s name would have appeared alphabetically.
Assistant District Attorney Gregory Stein argued that the timing of the search showed consciousness of guilt and that Father Lang may have worried that he was one of the unnamed priests in the report. He said the evidence wasn’t the same as evidence that a suspect actually hired or consulted with an attorney, which appellate court rulings have said can’t be used against a defendant.
Judge Mariani disagreed with Mr. Stein and further noted that there was no evidence showing why Father Lang did the searches.
“How do we know he was looking for a lawyer for himself?” the judge asked, suggesting he might have been looking on behalf of an accused colleague. The judge also noted that the priest could have searched because he was innocent but was afraid of being falsely accused if he had worked at the same parish as an abusive priest.
“I just can’t get there from here,” he said.
Peter Smith: petersmith@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1416; Twitter @PG_PeterSmith.
First Published: March 9, 2020, 2:30 p.m.
Updated: March 9, 2020, 5:16 p.m.
