Sandusky's attorneys request deadline extension for filing of post-trial motion supporting brief

Jerry Sandusky’s defense attorneys are asking the judge overseeing the case for

additional time by which to submit a brief in support of the convicted child molester’s post-sentencing motions.

The lawyers, who seek to have Sandusky’s conviction overturned and a new trial ordered, among other post-trial relief, were originally supposed to have their supporting brief submitted to the court by Nov. 16.

In a motion filed on Monday, however, three days before the looming deadline, attorneys Joseph Amendola and Norris E. Gelman asked Common Pleas Court Judge John M. Cleland for a two-week extension of time in which to file their court papers.

“There is a vast amount of material to review from the discovery information and the trial,” the motion reads. “Significant research has to be done to support the Defendant’s claims and counsel would be able to file a far more meaningful brief if the short two week extension were to be granted.”

The motion also states that Gelman, an appellate lawyer who joined the defense team after the completion of the trial, was recovering from a heart attack and open-heart surgery following Sandusky’s sentencing, and was unable to get back to work until mid October.

Sandusky was convicted of 45 counts of child sex-abuse in June following a jury trial in Centre County.

He was subsequently sentenced to between 30 and 60 years in state prison.

Sandusky, once the defensive coordinator for the Penn State Nittany Lions, is in his upper 60s.

He currently calls home the State Correctional Institution in Greene County, which is located in southwestern Pennsylvania.

Civil litigation is pending against Sandusky, the university, and The Second Mile, a youth charity started by Sandusky in the 1970s that is where many of Sandusky’s young victims were believed to have been groomed for molestation.