Former Penn State Def Coord. charged with Sex Abuse, PSU AD charged with Perjury

[sseelhoff]

Well, I don't want it to seem like I am making light of the abuse. I am confident that they will find this a-hole guilty. And this laughable "defense" that he and his lawyers are concocting are making me more confident daily.

I know you're not making light of the crime, just the criminals.

Not trying to be sanctimonious. These guys are buffoons, and deserve whatever derision can be heaped upon them.

[sseelhoff]

any possibility that they are trying to mess it up on purpose? i mean, they can't think people will believe this right?

Sent from my ADR6350 using Tapatalk

If they are messing this up on purpose, they can turn in their licenses now.

[det2orl]

I know you're not making light of the crime, just the criminals.

Not trying to be sanctimonious. These guys are buffoons, and deserve whatever derision can be heaped upon them.

Gotcha.

I've heard some ridiculous excuse for ridiculous actions before but this could very well be there worst/best/funniest.

[The Great Gazoo]

If they are messing this up on purpose, they can turn in their licenses now.

i'm only asking because there can't be any way they think this will work

[sseelhoff]

i'm only asking because there can't be any way they think this will work

They could be floating ideas to see what the public will buy into. Another option is they don't see anything wrong with what Sandusky did. Keep in mind that Amendola impregnated a 16 year old client. He already has his own boundry issues with young girls, not to mention the huge ethical implications of such behavior for an attorney having sex with a client of any age (a huge no-no). Who knows what this other idiot lawyer has in his background. As hard as it is for us to understand, they may be this stupid and/or this oblivious as to how most people feel about this.

[reggie21]

As hard as it is for us to understand, they may be this stupid and/or this oblivious as to how most people feel about this.

a lot of that going around the state college area.

[The Black Hand]

Were it not for the fact that there are dozens of young boys who suffered sexual assault by Sandusky, I'd be laughing along with you. Sandusky and his defense lawyers are absolutely ridiculous. If a lawyer intentionally set out to make his client look bad, he could not do a better job than these idiots. Incredible. Can't wait for the dirt to come out on this new lawyer. Perhaps he has his own pedophile problem.

Maybe this is like that movie with Bradd Pitt where he intentionally threw the case to get his boys off after they killed Kevin Bacon.

[SportsFromA2]

Things may not be as grim for Jerry Sandusky as they seem, Philadelphia Weekly informs us today. The reasons for that are codified into Pennsylvania law: 1.) Trial judges are required to instruct jurors to factor in how long it took for victims to report their allegations of sex abuse to authorities, even though that time difference is known to have no relevance to the truth of their claims.
2.) Expert testimony in sex assault cases is not permitted.
Regarding the former, here is the text of the relevant statute for juror instruction, per Philadelphia Weekly:

The evidence of [name of victim]'s [failure to complain] [delay in making a complaint] does not necessarily make [his] [her] testimony unreliable, but may remove from it the assurance of reliability accompanying the prompt complaint or outcry that the victim of a crime such as this would ordinarily be expected to make.

Now, there have been numerous reports that sexual assault victims are unlikely to come forward right away, with The New York Times even reporting that the grand jury's subpoena power is what finally compelled a number of Sandusky's alleged victims to tell investigators their stories. And, as the PW story notes, "there is no proven correlation between delay in reporting assault and an alleged victim's likelihood to tell the truth."
Pennsylvania, unlike many other states, has a full-time state legislature. That lawmaking branch has a whopping 253 members. It had no trouble giving itself a pay raise in the dark of night a few years back. But it can't be bothered to move quickly to change a stupid, antiquated law like that.
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review says Pennsylvania is the only state in the nation that prohibits the use of expert testimony in a sex abuse case. I'll let Philadelphia Weekly's Tara Murtha explain why that prohibition is stupid:

Without an expert to set the jury straight on the sometimes counterintuitive ways a "typical" victim of sexual assault may respond—keeping it a secret; believing an assailant's emotionally manipulative declarations of love; responding to the assailant's efforts to continue the relationship—the jury is ill-equipped to place a victim's testimony into proper context.

Instead of using what we know from decades of research to give jurors context to analyze alleged victims' testimony, juries are left to make judgments from unfair, and largely incorrect, societal biases.

According to Murtha, a bill that would allow expert witnesses to testify in sex abuse cases has passed the state House in Pennsylvania by a 197-0 margin. But it's been sitting in committee in the state Senate since June. Stewart Greenleaf, the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, took time out from his busy schedule to explain to Murtha that he was still looking at it, saying he wants to "fine-tune" it. That he has such reservations at a time like this must be music to Jerry Sandusky's ears.

http://deadspin.com/5868502/jerry-sa...w-%5Bupdate%5D

[phillyfan]

This will be oj part two.

[dtrrman]

This will be oj part two.

OJ didn't do it, he's been looking for the real killer!

[sseelhoff]

http://deadspin.com/5868502/jerry-sa...nsylvania-law-[update]

Wow. They like pedophiles in Pennsylvania. No other way to read that jury instruction. Ignore the victim for not reporting timely. Even though it's widely accepted by experts (psychologists and psychiatrists) that victims suppress these events for many many years.