Ex-Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky asks Pa. Superior Court for new trial
Convicted child sexual offender Jerry Sandusky’s latest attempt to be freed from his 30- to 60-year state prison sentence alleges collusion, grand jury leaks and prosecutorial misconduct.
Lawyers Phil Lauer and Al Lindsay asked the state Superior Court in a 30-page motion filed earlier this month to grant the former Penn State Nittany Lions defensive coordinator a new trial or dismiss the charges against him.
Sandusky’s lawyers alleged state prosecutors colluded with Louis Freeh’s investigative team on a “de facto joint investigation” that his trial attorney, Joe Amendola, was never aware of and improperly influenced the outcome of the trial.
The “substantial communications” between the attorney general’s office and Freeh’s team were gleaned from a diary purportedly kept by one of Freeh’s lead investigators, Kathleen McChesney.
The diary — which was discovered in November by Lauer and Lindsay — summarized daily briefings and other “highlights” from the ongoing investigation, including conversations with the attorney general’s office, Lauer wrote.
The attorney general’s office did not respond Tuesday to a request for comment.
“These communications clearly indicate that the Freeh group and the attorney general’s office were assisting each other’s investigations by sharing information,” Lauer wrote. “That is, the Office of Attorney General was providing information to the Freeh group during its investigation and the Freeh group was providing information to the Office of Attorney General.”
Sandusky’s attorneys also argued state prosecutors failed to divulge that one Penn State faculty member who was later accepted as a juror was interviewed by Freeh’s team.
The questions focused on how the university’s board of trustees interacted with the president, the woman said during jury selection in June 2012.
But Sandusky’s lawyers wrote they received a purported summary of the interview that “included something more than how the Penn State faculty interacted with the president and board of trustees.”
There was also a coordinated effort between the attorney general’s office, Freeh’s team and the NCAA to rush the case to trial, Sandusky’s lawyers wrote.
Sandusky was arrested in November 2011 and went to trial in June 2012. Nearly three weeks after his conviction, Penn State signed an agreement that imposed a $60 million fine, postseason ban, vacated wins and reduced scholarships.
Without a conviction, Freeh report and agreement — in that order — there would have been no 2012 football season, Lauer wrote.
McChesney’s diary indicated conversations about the timing of the Freeh report and Sandusky’s trial, Lauer wrote. He also questioned whether trial Judge John Cleland communicated with the Freeh group or the attorney general’s office.
“The absence of disclosure of the grand jury leaks and the significant cooperation between the grand jury and the Freeh group significantly impaired trial counsel’s ability to prepare for trial and conduct meaningful and effective cross-examination on many issues relating to potential motivations for witnesses’ testimony, the timing of the trial, as well as effective examination of potential jurors on similar issues,” Lauer wrote.
Amendola, McChesney, Freeh, Cleland, former prosecutors and former Penn State trustees are among those who could be called to testify if the Superior Court grants Sandusky a new hearing.
Sandusky, 76, is detained at Laurel Highlands state prison in Somerset County.