Jerry Sandusky: Statue of Limitations Ruling Could Lead to New Child Sex Abuse Charges
ByDue to an exception in the Penn. statute of limitations on child sexual abuse, Jerry Sandusky could face more charges on top of the ones he was convicted of.
According to CNN, Centre County Judge Thomas King Kistler ruled Wednesday that the statute of limitations does not apply to state employees. An assistant football coach at a public school at the time of the alleged crime, Sandusky qualifies.
Anthony Spinelli, a 43-year-old man from Boston, claimed Sandusky sexually abused him on two occasions in the late 1980s when he was a high school football recruit. Both times occurred on Penn State's campus: once in the football facility's showers and another time in Sandusky's office.
Spinelli told CNN the abuse not only ended his football career prematurely, but also drove him to substance abuse and he has the criminal record to back it up. After arrests for theft and drugs, Spinelli was eventually charged with murder, which he pleaded down to manslaughter.
He saw Sandusky's trial in 2011 from prison and met with a lawyer and a police officer to detail the abuse he suffered, CNN reported. Despite knowing the statute of limitations could have run out on his case, he filed a complaint last year.
"The exception period, although applied twice, was never applied twice under the same applicable statute of limitations," Kistler wrote in his ruling, according to The State College News. "This court finds that the application of the employee exception to the second amended statute of limitations is not prohibited by the statue as written."
Kistler's ruling came the day before Sandusky was due in court to make his case for a new trial, Reuters reported. Sandusky will try to convince the judge that presided over the case in 2012, Senior Judge John Cleland, that his "right to a fair trial was not only infringed, it was crushed under a stampede of vitriol, rage, and prejudice," wrote his lawyer, Alexander Lindsay.
Sandusky was convicted in that trial on 45 of the 48 charges against him, primarily for sexually abusing 10 boys over a period of 15 years. He is now about three years into a sentence of 30 to 60 years, which at the age of 71 is essentially a life sentence.
Sandusky has maintained his innocence throughout and has continuously sought an appeal, but to no avail as of yet.