Lawyers for Msgr. William Lynn, charged with child endangerment for allegedly enabling abusive priests in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, said Monday that prosecutors had erred in bringing a criminal case against him, and they have asked a judge to dismiss the charges.

Lynn, former secretary for clergy for Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, is the first member of the Catholic hierarchy in the nation to be criminally charged for assigning known abusers to posts that gave them access to new victims. Lynn, 60, who most recently was pastor of St. Joseph Church in Downingtown, has pleaded not guilty.

He was arrested in February along with two priests, the Rev. James Brennan and the Rev. Charles Engelhardt; a defrocked priest, Edward Avery; and Bernard Shero, a former parochial school teacher. Prosecutors say the other four men raped and sodomized altar boys in the mid-1990s.

Lawyers for Brennan, Engelhardt, Avery and Shero said Monday that prosecutors had offered to recommend prison sentences of 7½ to 15 years if the men would plead guilty to rape, conspiracy and other charges. Each rejected that suggestion.

Brennan, 47, is charged with raping and sexually assaulting a 14-year-old boy in 1996 while on leave from Cardinal O’Hara High School.

Engelhardt, 64, Avery, 68 […]