Jury selection in Sandusky case continues

BELLEFONTE, Pa. — The lawyers who will argue the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse case said they’re happy with the nine jurors selected so far. They’ll work to fill the seven remaining spots Wednesday.

Defense lawyer Joe Amendola arrived with Sandusky just after 8:15 a.m. and told reporters he’s confident the nine jurors picked on Tuesday will give “us a fair shake.”

Lead prosecutor Joseph McGettigan, Pennsylvania’s senior deputy attorney general, said that jury selection was “so far, so good.”

The ranks of the five men and four women already selected reflect the strong role Penn State plays in its surrounding community.

The other three main jurors and four alternates could be chosen Wednesday, with opening statements scheduled for Monday. Judge John Cleland has said the case could last several weeks.

Nine of the 12 main members of the jury were selected Tuesday, and they include a rising senior at the college, a retired soil sciences professor with 37 years at the university, a man with bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the school and a woman who’s been a football season ticket holder since the 1970s.

Others selected included a 24-year-old man with plans to attend an auto technician school, a mother of two who works in retail, a retired school bus driver, an engineer with no Penn State ties and a property management firm employee.

Sandusky, 68, a former assistant football coach, is fighting 52 criminal charges for alleged abuse of 10 boys over 15 years. He has repeatedly denied the allegations. He faces potential penalties that could result in an effective life prison sentence.

More than 600 jury duty summonses were sent out to residents in Centre County, the home of Penn State University’s main campus.

In questioning 40 prospective jurors, about half said they or immediate family members worked at Penn State or were university retirees. One woman rented apartments to college students. Four knew Sandusky and two knew his wife.

Sandusky’s lawyer won the right to have jurors chosen from the local community, and prosecutors had concerns that Centre County might prove to be nearly synonymous with Penn State.

Sandusky had helped build the football team’s reputation as a defensive powerhouse known as “Linebacker U.” His arrest toppled Joe Paterno from the head coaching position just months before his death from cancer, and some of the alleged attacks on children are said to have occurred inside university showers.

One of the very first jurors to be seated wasn’t just a season ticketholder since the 1970s: She said John McQueary — a possible trial witness and the father of a key witness — once worked with her husband.

When Sandusky’s lawyer sought to have her removed for cause, Cleland signaled he would need more grounds.

“We’re in Centre County. We’re in rural Pennsylvania,” Cleland said, noting that such connections “can’t be avoided.”

Amendola opted not to use one of his eight challenges, and she joined the panel. Amendola did strike parents with children who are roughly junior high school age, similar to the ages for the alleged victims.

All the jurors will have to say under oath they can be impartial.

Prospective jurors learned that Paterno’s widow, Sue, and their son and former quarterbacks’ coach, Jay, were among the potential defense witnesses, about which a family spokesman declined to comment. Members of Sandusky’s family also were on a list read to prospective jurors, along with assistant coach Mike McQueary and his father.

Mike McQueary, on leave from the team, has said he saw Sandusky naked in a team shower with a young boy more than a decade ago and reported it to Paterno. Mike McQueary is also on the prosecution’s list, along with young men who have accused Sandusky of abusing them.

Among those who were struck from the jury pool were a nurse who said people make up stories all the time — prosecutors used a challenge for her — as well as a man who had volunteered for the charity Sandusky founded, The Second Mile.

Also struck were a mother of 10 who said she has made up her mind, a Penn State fan and township manager who said news coverage of the case has been destructive to her community, a woman who taught Sandusky’s son in third grade before the Sanduskys adopted him, and a ‘94 alumnus who knows the Sanduskys.

Sandusky attended jury selection, and laughed at some of Cleland’s humorous remarks to potential jurors. But when Cleland told the pool the nature of the charge, Sandusky put his head down.

Prosecutors have claimed that Sandusky groomed boys he met through The Second Mile, the charity he founded for at-risk youth in 1977, then attacked them, in some cases in his own home or inside university athletic facilities.