Judge Sets a Trial Date for Perjury Case against Penn State Administrators
ByThe Judge overseeing the lawsuit against two suspended Pennsylvania State University administrators has set a January date for the trial to go on floors.
Tim Curley, once the school's athletic director, and Gary Schultz, former vice president of Penn State have been charged with concealing child sex-abuse allegations against Jerry Sandusky and later lying about their involvement to a grand jury.
Dauphin County judge, Judge Todd Hoover has ordered Jan.7 as the date of the jury selection for the trial to commence. Opening arguments will begin immediately after the selection of the jury.
The order came immediately after the judge heard the requests of the lawyers of Curley and Schultz Thursday to discard the charges of perjury and failure to report abuse. Judge Todd A. Hoover has yet to rule on those requests. Though the order was signed Thursday, it was made public only Friday.
Judge Hoover said the defense attorneys have until Sept. 4 to respond to the prosecution's filings, regarding the second charge against each of failing to report the suspected child abuse. A separate hearing on that charge could occur at a later date.
The second charge of failure to notify was charged earlier this week and the accused have pleaded not guilty to both the charges- lying to grand jury and failure to notify.
The lawyers defending Curly and Schultz are not happy with the new charges. They say the frequent additions to the case have hindered their effort in putting up an effective defense.
"We are on shifting sands," said Curley's lawyer, Caroline Roberto to philly.com. "We need an end point. We need determination. We need to know what we are defending against so we can move forward to trial."
Prosecutors say both the accused failed to notify the authorities when then-graduate assistant Mike McQueary told them that he had walked in on Sandusky, a former assistant football coach, sexually abusing a 10-year-old boy in the university locker-room shower.
In June, Jerry Sandusky was convicted on 45 counts of child molestation for abusing 10 boys over a period of 15 years.