Sandusky Wants Power To Look Into Potential Case Leaks
Jerry Sandusky is looking for subpoena power to look into contact between state prosecutors and the judge who oversaw the grand jury proceedings and recommended he be charged with child molestation, according to the Associated Press. Sandusky filed a 25-page court document last week requesting information as to how the grand jury investigation was published eight months before his arrest, and is suspicious of potential leaks.
Al Lindsay, Sandusky’s lawyer, wrote in the filing that recent news about inappropriate communication between prosecutors and judges in Pennsylvania has made rise to the possibility that there may have been a similar discussion with Sandusky’s case. The two are asking for emails, records of communication, and access to sworn statements from anyone with access to the grand jury proceedings, and are basically digging around for other potential leaks seeings as they are aware of two relatively large ones.
The Patriot-News broke the story in 2011 that Sandusky was under investigation by a grand jury for child abuse, which is considered the first leak because grand jury investigations are supposed to be private. Sara Ganim, the reporter from the Patriot-News who broke the story, is one of the targets of subpoena. The filing ultimately requests that anyone who had access to the proceedings before the grand jury be issued a subpoena. Sandusky is also seeking access to “any and all records, documents, and correspondence,” between any members of the judiciary and the attorney general’s office.
“This would of course result in a ‘tainting’ of the grand jury investigation and would have likely had significance in the grand jury presentment accusing the defendant of various criminal acts and subsequent prosecution,” Lindsay wrote in the filing. The second leak was that the presentment was leaked a day early when Sandusky was arrested and charged.
Chuck Ardo, spokesman of the attorney general’s office, noted that communication between the prosecutors and a grand jury supervisory judge is not unusual, and that the office is not aware of anything unusual.
“We are not aware of any inappropriate communications between this office and Judge [Barry] Feudale,” Ardo said. Another spokesperson from the attorney general’s office said that, though they are still reviewing the filing, there is no evidence that leaks came from anyone associated with the prosecutor’s office.
Sandusky is expected to attend a hearing on Oct. 29 regarding this and other post-trial issues, according to Lindsay.
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