Could Catholic Church Official Convicted of Child Endangerment Get Out of Jail?

A Roman Catholic church official could soon seek bail after a Pennsylvania appeals court refused to review a decision to throw out his child-endangerment conviction.

Monsignor William Lynn has been in and out of prison as state appeals courts have split on the validity of his 2012 conviction.

Lynn, 65, is the first U.S. church supervisor ever arrested over his role in the alleged cover-up of priest sexual abuse.

A Philadelphia jury found in 2012 that he endangered an altar boy by sending a known pedophile priest to the boy's parish in the late 1990s. The priest was at the top of a list of known or suspected predators that Lynn prepared while he was secretary for clergy at the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, a post he held from 1992 to 2004.

The Superior Court has twice thrown out the conviction after finding that Lynn was wrongly charged or did not get a fair trial. On Wednesday, the court declined to review the latter such ruling.

Prosecutors may appeal to the state Supreme Court, which once reinstated the conviction. Defense lawyer Thomas Bergstrom expects to try to get Lynn released on bail in the interim.

Lynn, who currently is in prison, has served more than two years of a three- to six-year sentence, and another 16 months of house arrest at a city rectory.