Once the president of one of the country's most prestigious public universities, Graham Spanier is now in the midst of two legal battles stemming from the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal and Penn State.

According to the Centre Daily Times, Spanier and his attorney Elizabeth Ainslie appeared in court Tuesday morning to ask for a delay of his civil defamation lawsuit against former FBI director Louis Freeh. Robert Heim, an attorney representing Freeh, asked Judge Jonathan D. Grine to require Spanier to lay out details of his lawsuit to go along with the delay.

The Freeh report was a private investigation that detailed an alleged cover-up, suggesting Spanier, former athletic director Tim Curley, former vice president Gary Schultz and others at Penn State knew of Sandusky's crimes and did not report them. Spanier's filing, however, is only for intent to sue, but Heim said the claims of defamation are hurting his client's public reputation.

"He is a former judge. He is a public figure. This is serious, serious business," Heim argued, according to PennLive.com. "I want Dr. Spanier to tell Louis Freeh what knowing falsehood [Freeh] committed... That's what we're entitled to."

Spanier, Schultz and Curley are set to face trial for criminal charges relating to the alleged cover-up of Sandusky's crimes. Sandusky, the Penn State football team's former assistant coach under the late Joe Paterno, was convicted for the sexual abuse of several young boys and sentenced to 30 years in prison before becoming eligible for parole. For a 69-year-old man, it is effectively a life sentence.

Ainslie argued the two cases have a "85-90 percent" overlap with many of the same details and witnesses to be used in both the criminal case and the civil suit. She argued that key witnesses, like the school's former attorney Cynthia Baldwin, are important to both cases.

Heim argued that, since a formal suit should have to be filed in order to delay it and stressed that the only thing Spanier did was publicly accuse Freeh of defamation.

Spanier's criminal trial is expected to be scheduled soon and will likely take place in 2014. Grine also did not immediately make a ruling, nor did he specify when his decision would come.

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