NCAA wants Paterno info

The latest round of court documents in the fight between the Paterno estate and the NCAA reads a lot like the ones that have come before.

There are subpoenas. There are demands for information. There are refusals and objections. And there is the ongoing focus on the money made off the Paterno name.

The lawsuit was initiated in 2013 by the family of former Nittany Lions football coach Joe Paterno against the college sports organization for various claims after the fallout of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal. It has seen the two sides repeatedly butting heads over discovery.

The most recent battles were in front of Potter County Senior Judge John Leete, specially presiding in Centre County, who agreed with the NCAA that some of its requests, including information about co-plaintiff and former assistant coach Jay Paterno’s political aspirations and more, could be open to discovery. He shot down a request for “all documents” pertaining to his book “Paterno Legacy: Enduring Lessons from the Life and Death of My Father.”

But questions about the book and other aspects of Jay Paterno’s business rose again in documents filed Monday.

Attorneys for the NCAA filed a prerequisite to serve a subpoena on Blue Line 409 LLC, Jay Paterno’s company. Among the requests were “all documents pertaining to actual or contemplated sale of any goods or services” relating to Joe or Jay Paterno, the company, the estate, etc., including speaking engagements, television appearances, naming rights, and the Paterno Legacy Series beer, back as far as 2006. Joe Paterno died in January 2012. Jay Paterno was released from Penn State’s coaching staff the same month.

The requests also ask for “all documents concerning the book ‘Paterno Legacy’ or any other potential or draft book” concerning the Sandusky-related issues at the heart of the lawsuit.

Jay Paterno’s camp fired back with objections to the whole request, as well as each of the 14 individual demands.

Most of the objections referenced the fact that the questions had already been posed to Jay Paterno individually, or that they were not relevant, but did say he did not object to turning over any relevant documents.

One of the overarching objections, however, was the timing.

According to the documents, Jay Paterno formed the company in July 2014, two and a half years after Penn State released him when Bill O’Brien was hired as head coach and a year after the Paterno estate filed its lawsuit.

“In discovery to date, the parties have produced documents and information only up to the date of the filing of the complaint ... unless they intend to rely on information that post-dates the filing in support of their claims or defenses. The subpoena at issue is addressed to Blue Line 409, which did not exist until more than a year after this action was filed,” wrote attorney Thomas Weber.

This story was originally published November 18, 2015 at 10:22 AM with the headline "NCAA wants Paterno info."