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Judge: Sandusky Trial Starts June 5

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Having been pestered by a plethora of defense motions, Centre County Judge John Cleland was unyielding about changing Jerry Sandusky’s trial date. The show will go on, and it starts tomorrow, June 5, with jury selection. The actual trial will begin approximately June 11, depending on how long it takes to find a jury.

Sandusky is looking at 52 felony and misdemeanor counts for molesting and raping young boys.

Jury selection might be difficult because of Sandusky’s notoriety with respect to the charges, and his previous popularity in Pennsylvania, Centre County in particular.  This Turkey notes that in this year’s most hated Americans list, Casey Anthony was Number One and Sandusky was Number Three. So, obviously the anti-Sandusky bias extends far beyond the county line. You can expect lots of challenges from Joe Amendola, Sandusky’s attorney. Eventually, a jury will be seated. Hopefully, it won’t be like OJ’s.

There will be no television coverage, which will be weird for those of us here in Florida who are trial junkies. We all got into the Casey Anthony trial whole hog. The judge also imposed a ban on Twitter from the courtroom.

Senior Deputy Attorney General Joseph McGettigan will be the lead prosecutor for the Commonwealth. His team has lined up eight witnesses who are expected to testify in detail about their molestation by  Sandusky. They range from 18 to 28 years old now. Other witnesses will include Tim Curley and Gary Schultz, who both are under indictment for perjury with respect to their testimony before the Grand Jury that indicted Sandusky. The pending charges should probably silence them, using the Fifth Amendment to avoid self-incrimination.

Amendola is a skilled defense attorney, who can be expected to go for the throat with respect to each of the eight primary prosecution witnesses and, hence, their credibility.

These eight witnesses had petitioned the court to be referred to by pseudonyms (e.g., Victim Two) during the trial. Judge Cleland denied that request, so the victims’ names will be revealed to the media and public attending the trial. There was no objection by the defense, but the motions were filed by the victims’ personal attorneys, not the defense or the prosecution. The judge said that state law didn’t give him the authority to allow adults to protect their identities in open court.

Sandusky, if convicted, will most likely spend the rest of his life in prison.

Pennlive.com has put together a beautiful interactive breakdown of the charges against Sandusky and the likely defense Amendola will mount against them.

 

McQueary Throws the Monkey Wrench

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All of a sudden, the date on which then graduate assistant Mike McQueary witnessed Jerry Sandusky’s alleged criminal act has changed.

The Grand Jury Presentment, which is the basis for the original sexual assault charges against Sandusky and the perjury charges against Tim Curley and Gary Schultz, reflects McQueary’s testimony that the alleged attack occured on March 1, 2002. However, now that his whistleblower suit is at the fore, McQueary changed his mind. The court filing, presumably drafted with McQueary’s participation, shows the date of February 9, 2001.

That’s a bit of a problem for a few reasons.

For one thing, because the perjury charges against Curley and Schultz were based on McQueary’s sworn testimony that the incident occurred on March 1, 2002, the perjury case is at least jeopardized and might wind up being tossed out of court because the earlier date places at least some of the basis for the perjury beyond the statute of limitations. Perjury is not a capital crime.

Another problem is that fooling around with the date casts doubt on McQueary’s credibility. Why should anyone believe him at this point when he has changed his story several times? His meandering, whether it be mendacious or just sloppy testimony could provide an immense bonus to the Sandusky defense.

For example, his initial statement to the police in 2010 states, ” On the Friday before spring break in either the year 2001 or 2002, 2002 I think… bla bla bla…” Look for a bevy of attorneys to tear McQueary limb from limb. Naturally, Sandusky’s attorney, Joseph Amendola, is at the head of the pack.

“I don’t know if it’s a lie as opposed to faulty memory, and if it’s faulty memory, what else has he misremembered? [sic]” stated Amendola.

Pulitzer prize winner Sara Ganim of the Patriot-News has more on the subject.

McQueary Suing Alma Mater

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The whistleblower law came about because of situations in which employees notified the media or authorities about illegal or improper practices and were subsequently fired or made to suffer financial and emotional damage. With this in mind, think back to Mike McQueary’s role in the Sandusky case. Was he actually the whistle blower?

He and his attorney apparently characterized him as such in the “writ of summons”, which described it as a whistleblower case. However, the actual complaints have not been fleshed out.

OK, now this is not a joke, for all you who love to joke about lawyers, but I’m cracking up here. McQueary’s Harrisburg lawyer’s name is Elliott Strokoff. Imagine what he went through as a child! Had to toughen him up and influence his becoming a crusader for the downtrodden.  (You remember the comedic law firms of Leanback & Whackitt and the Car Talk favorites Dewey, Cheatham & Howe.)

The Centre Daily Times broke the story first.

Anyway, while Elliott isn’t too busy stroking off, he’s been working on an attack strategy for McQueary in this forthcoming lawsuit. The red-headed ex-assistant coach and former quarterback for the Nittany Lions has been placed on administrative leave and has been laying low ever since polarized public outcry made him an outlaw for not kicking the shit out of Sandusky when he was waving his dick around in the shower.

The Sandusky trial will not begin until this summer, but these ancillary skirmishes might continue for some time. Curley and Schultz remain to be prosecuted for their alleged perjury in connection with the Sandusky caper.