Sandusky's lawyer files motion to push back sex-abuse trial until July

The attorney representing accused child molester Jerry Sandusky filed a motion Feb. 27 asking a judge to push back the former Penn State assistant football coach’s trial until July, citing the need to take additional time to review information in the sex-abuse case.

Attorney Joseph L. Amendola filed his motion for continuance at the Centre County Court of Common Pleas.

Among other things, Amendola is requesting the start of Sandusky’s trial be continued to mid-July, in order to give counsel enough time to properly prepare Sandusky’s defense.

Sandusky, the former defensive coordinator for the Pennsylvania State University Nittany Lions, is charged with sexually abusing 10 underage boys dating back a decade-and-a-half.

He was initially arrested in November of last year following a grand jury investigation, and then rearrested the following month.

The paperwork Amendola filed Monday also contained a motion for extension of time to file an omnibus pretrial motion, and a motion for extension of time to respond to the commonwealth’s response to defendant’s motion to compel discovery.

In his combined motions, Amendola said he is still waiting to receive volumes of pretrial discovery materials from state prosecutors, something that he envisions putting a damper on the timeframe in which the judge has allotted for the case to move forward.

(Jury selection had been scheduled to start in May).

Amendola acknowledge he has already received some of the materials, but he is waiting on more to be delivered.

He has been in constant contact with prosecutors, Amendola said, and while they have been receptive to his requests, it has taken longer than initially envisioned to get all the materials over to him.

In light of the delays, Amendola said he doesn’t believe he would be able to file his omnibus pretrial motion on or before March 22, as was ordered by the court.

In the motion for continuance, Amendola wrote that his team will need a “substantial amount of time” to locate and interview witnesses who have become known to the defendant during the course of the case against him.

This is especially germane given that the “commonwealth has redacted the addresses and phone numbers of these individuals in the materials it has provided to the Defendant,” the motion states.

Amendola also wrote that he expects he’ll need more time to issue a number of subpoenas to various agencies and people to produce records relating to Sandusky’s case.

“Defendant’s counsel has consulted with counsel for the Commonwealth, who has indicated the Commonwealth does not object to the Defendant’s request for a continuance in these matters for a reasonable amount of time to mid-July 2012,” the motion states.

Sandusky, 68, faces more than 50 criminal counts stemming from his alleged crimes. He is charged with sexually abusing boys both on and off Penn State’s Centre County, Pa. campus.