HARRISBURG, Pa.
A judge rejected requests by prosecutors that jurors be brought in from outside the State College area to hear the child sex-abuse case against former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky.
Judge John Cleland on Monday also denied prosecutors’ requests that Sandusky remain indoors while on home confinement before his trial and ruled that Sandusky can have supervised contact with most of his grandchildren, saying there was no evidence that the children’s parents wouldn’t be able to keep them safe.
Sandusky faces 52 criminal counts for what prosecutors say was the sexual abuse of 10 boys over a 15-year period. He has denied the allegations.
Cleland has tentatively scheduled the trial to start in mid-May. He said jury selection will be a challenge, given the pretrial publicity and the special role that Penn State plays in the Centre County community.
“If, after a reasonable attempt it is apparent that a jury cannot be selected within a reasonable time, then I will reconsider this ruling,” Cleland wrote.
A spokesman for the attorney general’s office said the judge’s orders were being reviewed.
Sandusky’s lawyer issued a statement saying Sandusky, his wife and their family were “relieved by and pleased with” the visitation ruling, which pertains to all but three of his 11 grandchildren, ages 2 to 14. Those three children are involved in a custody case, and Cleland deferred decisions about any visits from them to the judge handling that matter.
Prosecutors made the bail modification request, asking that Sandusky remain indoors, after hearing concerns by neighbors about the safety of children, particularly at an elementary school behind Sandusky’s house.
“The commonwealth failed to present any evidence whatsoever that the defendant presents a clearly defined threat to any student at the adjoining elementary school simply by being on his deck,” Cleland wrote.
Cleland encouraged state prosecutors to work with the judge who supervised a grand jury that investigated Sandusky to figure out how to release grand jury transcripts to Sandusky’s lawyers “on a schedule which balances the appropriate interests of maintaining the secrecy of the grand jury while still assuring the trial can proceed without unnecessary disruption.”
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