Alleged rape victim acquitted of beating priest A jury in San Jose found a 44-year-old man not guilty Thursday of two felony counts stemming from an alleged attack on a retired Catholic priest who he says raped him on a camping trip in 1975. The nationally watched trial threw a spotlight on the issue of sexual abuse by Catholic priests, as Lynch sought to make it more about the rape he says he suffered than the beating he admits he delivered. Throngs of supporters massed outside the courthouse entrance every day of the two-week trial, waving picket signs with such sentiments as Catholic Church: Lynch argued that his attack was justified considering the trauma he has endured since Lindner allegedly molested him and his brother on a religious camping trip in 1975 in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Lynch said that as an adult he tried to get criminal charges filed against Lindner, but by then the six-year statute of limitations in place at the time of the alleged attack had long expired.