Penn State

The Legal Intelligencer's Max Mitchell reports on the defenses being raised by the three ex-Penn State administrators charged with covering up Jerry Sandusky's sexual abuse: "The defendants, former university President Graham Spanier, ex-vice president for business and finance Gary Schultz and ex-athletic director Tim Curley, contended in the filings that what they view as [ex-GC Cynthia] Baldwin's murky role led to deprivation of counsel, violations of grand jury secrecy and breach of attorney-client privilege."

According to The Legal, the defendants also argue, when Baldwin accompanied them to their grand jury appearances, that Baldwin had a conflict of interest and that the prosecutors committed misconduct by not ensuring Baldwin was not conflicted. Baldwin later testified against them in grand jury proceedings.
 

The Legal Intelligencer's Max Mitchell reports that the murky role of Penn State's general counsel during grand jury proceedings could affect the efforts of prosecutors to hold three university administrators accountable for their actions regarding convicted child molester Jerry Sandusky. "If three ex-Penn State administrators facing charges stemming from failing to properly deal with reports of child sexual abuse by Jerry Sandusky are found to have appeared before a grand jury without proper advice of counsel, their testimony could be incurably affected and even tossed, several white-collar defense attorneys have said," Mitchell writes. Minutes of the grand jury proceedings show that Cynthia Baldwin said she was attending the grand jury proceedings on behalf of Penn State, but the defendants, former university President Graham Spanier, Vice President Gary Schultz and former athletic director Tim Curley, argue they thought Baldwin was their counsel. 
 

The Legal Intelligencer (my journalism alma mater) reports that the Superior Court rejected all of the appellate arguments made by Jerry Sandusky, the "former Penn State assistant football coach, [who] was convicted by a Centre County jury in June 2012 on 45 of 48 counts of sexual abuse of 10 boys over a 15-year period and was subsequently sentenced to 30 to 90 years in prison." 

The panel rejected the argument that Sandusky's rights were prejudiced because he was not granted a delay in the start of the trial. 

The appellate court also came back with its decision in record time.