Jail time for Main Line lawyer stalking woman
An attorney whose attempts to forge an intimate relationship will be spending his Valentine’s Day weekend in prison.
WEST CHESTER » A Main Line attorney whose attempts to forge an intimate relationship with a woman he met by chance at Paoli Local train station last summer will be spending his Valentine’s Day weekend at a decidedly unromantic getaway — Chester County Prison.
Attorney William Henry Lynch Jr. was sentenced on Tuesday to serve two days to 23 months in county prison after he pleaded guilty to a single count of misdemeanor stalking in connection with the criminal complaint filed by police on behalf of the woman Lynch met in July.
He was allowed to delay his report time to the prison in Pocopson until 6 p.m. on Feb. 14, Valentine’s Day.
The sentence was imposed by Common Pleas Judge Patrick Carmody after Assistant District Attorney Kaitlyn Macauley presented him with a series of text messages that Lynch had sent to the woman, whose name is being withheld by the Daily Local News because of the nature of the charges.
The messages — sent between Sept. 7 and Sept. 11 to the woman’s phone — range from friendly inquiries about the health of the woman’s son, to boasts about Lynch’s connections to state Republican Party figures, to shared thoughts of love songs he says remind him of the woman, and later to threats and obscenities that the woman told police made her feel frightened.
“I just listened to Love is in the Air. Regardless of whether we become lovers and husband and wife I will never listen to that song again without thinking of u,” Lynch wrote on one text, sent in early September. “You are an angel sent to me from heaven.”
Although the woman said that “all I have to offer is friendship and have told you this many times,” Lynch continued to send the woman texts with romantic and sexual fantasies.
“Why don’t you buy your favorite wine or some Grand Marnie and Tanqueray so u can have your favorite drink and I can have mine and relax in privacy,:” Lynch wrote in a series of texts about meeting the woman at her office. “We can then make love on the conference room table after we disrobe. I would like the blinds left open so we can take in the view as I make love to u.”
When the woman told Lynch that his texts upset her, he reacted angrily, threatening a civil lawsuit and putting her through a background check with the FBI. Eventually, he sent insulting texts using profanity and accusing her of participating in a “charade.”
Lynch, 61, of Paoli was arrested by Tredyffrin Police Det. Michael Carsello on Sept. 12 and charged with stalking, harassment, and disorderly conduct. He was released on $3,500 bail.
According to a criminal complaint against Lynch, the woman went to Carsello on Sept. 11 to report the conduct, saying that she had met Lynch at the Berwyn SEPTA station in July. By August, they had exchanged business cards and began to communicate by text message and cell calls. She told the detective that from the start she made it clear to Lynch that their relationship would be strictly friends.
But she said that Lynch began pursuing a more intimate relationship, and frequently described having sex with her and taking her on dates. She said that the messages made her feel “threatened, intimidated, and in fear for her safety.” In one message, Lynch described owning guns, she said.
She said that after deciding to end their friendship, Lynch began sending even more inappropriate and offensive messages, After she received them, she told Lynch that if he continued to harass her she would go to the police. That was on Sept. 7, and the resulting texts came between then and Sept. 11.
Lynch was represented at the sentencing proceeding by defense attorney Samuel Stretton of West Chester. On his website, he lists the areas of law that he practices as commercial litigation, personal injury, and workman’s compensation. His license to practice law in Pennsylvania is listed as active by the state Disciplinary Board.