The Pedophile File

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Penn State President Rodney Erickson announces he will step down in 2014 on doorstep of alumni town-hall meetings
— BY JEFF FRANTZ AND JAN MURPHY | The Patriot-News
— Published: Wednesday, January 11, 2012, 6:57 AM
— Updated: Wednesday, January 11, 2012, 8:48 AM

When he meets 600 alumni in Pittsburgh tonight, Penn State President Rodney Erickson will be able to tell them he’s staying for another two years.

How the alumni react will depend on what else Erickson says.

The university announced Tuesday that Erickson signed a contract paying him $515,000 a year — just in time for the three-city tour where Erickson will answer questions about the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal and Penn State’s response to it.

The seats in all three town-hall meetings — in Pittsburgh, King of Prussia and New York — have been reserved for more than a week. Alumni complaints started when the grand jury presentment against Sandusky was revealed in November and have only grown louder.

Tonight Erickson should expect to hear questions about the following:


. Why Penn State wasn’t better prepared to handle the allegations in November when the attorney general’s investigation had been reported last March.
. The decision to fire football coach Joe Paterno, how the firing was handled and Paterno’s legacy with the university going forward.
. The hiring of new coach Bill O’Brien.
. Penn State’s image.
. The feeling among some alumni that Erickson and the board have not shown the public leadership necessary to stay ahead of the national debate.

In his few appearances since replacing longtime President Graham Spanier, Erickson has not discussed these topics with great depth.

Instead, he has reiterated that former FBI director Louis Freeh’s investigation will determine what happened and what should have happened. He has discussed what Penn State plans to do to help survivors of child sex abuse. And he has talked about maintaining the university’s academic reputation.

Those answers are unlikely to appease the alumni groups that are building campaigns to vote out trustees or those who are focused on the future of the football program. Expect members of both camps to be in the crowds tonight and later this week.

While he’s on the road, Erickson will be taking private meetings with “alumni and friends of the university,” according to a spokeswoman.

Erickson, 65, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette he will step down when his contract expires in June 2014.

< snip to end >

[REFER.]

_________________
REFER RI THREADS. Sandusky Child Rape Research Questions Resource | Louis Freeh Penn State Pedo Investigator | The Pedophile File

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Please note the final paragraph.

Westboro Church Shows at Penn State Game

DALLAS - Protesters from the controversial Westboro Baptist Church showed up in Dallas on Monday just before Penn State’s football game in the Ticket City Bowl.

Pictures on Twitter showed protesters outside the stadium holding signs equating former Penn State coach Joe Paterno with the Pope.

< snip >

And in a twist, the Twitter user who posted pictures of the Westboro Church at the Cotton Bowl later reported that the Occupy Dallas group showed up at the game to protest against the Westboro Church.

tag: Sandusky

[Jeff]

Penn State's Joe Paterno is gravely ill and nearing death, as his family rushes to his side

5:49 PM

Legendary former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno is gravely ill and his family is rushing to State College to be by his side, his family has confirmed.

According to Onward State, Paterno was taken off of a respirator earlier today. However, the Paterno family has not confirmed that report.

Facebook and Twitter are flooded with students and fans saying that they are praying for Joe and for the Paterno family.

“Over the last few days Joe Paterno has experienced further health complications,” spokesman Dan McGinn said in a brief statement Saturday to The Associated Press. “His doctors have now characterized his status as serious."

“His family will have no comment on the situation and asks that their privacy be respected during this difficult time,” he said.

Paterno, 85, was diagnosed with lung cancer on Nov. 18. The diagnosis came just days after Paterno was fired by Penn State's board of trustees in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky child sexual abuse scandal.

...

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index. ... joe_p.html

[bks]

Shocker! Freeh is editing his report after meeting with the trustees! And it looks like there a strong-arming effort in the works [or an effort at bribery or some sort of influence].
That Thursday night meeting should be interesting.

Faculty Council unhappy with inquest

By Don Van Natta Jr. | ESPN.com

Some Penn State Faculty Council members are challenging the independence of Penn State's handling of child sexual-abuse allegations after the lead investigator told them he would present his findings twice to a university Board of Trustees' committee before releasing his report publicly.

Former FBI director Louis J. Freeh was hired by the board on Nov. 21 to investigate how Penn State handled the Jerry Sandusky sexual-abuse scandal, which led to the board's decision to fire Joe Paterno after 46 years as head football coach. Freeh pledged to conduct his inquiry with "complete independence, and take it wherever it may lead." The scope of his investigation, he announced, would include actions made by Penn State's Board of Trustees.

But Freeh held a one-hour, closed-door meeting with Penn State's Faculty Council on Jan. 10 and told faculty members that he intended to turn over his preliminary investigative report to the Special Committee of the Board of Trustees for their input, two attendees of the meeting told "Outside the Lines." After making revisions to the report, Freeh told the Faculty Council that he would then provide a second draft report to the trustees' special committee.

Freeh's investigative report into the worst scandal in Penn State's 156-year history will be made public after the second draft is reviewed by the board, he told the Faculty Council. Freeh's report will include recommendations for changes.

Freeh told the faculty members that only the Board of Trustees' special committee would be given the chance to review his draft reports, according to the faculty members who attended the meeting. Freeh said he would not share the draft reports with anyone else, they said.

"It was very easy to become suspicious about how fair this investigation is going to be," said one of the participants in the meeting, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "I find it very difficult for a contractor who is essentially hired by the Board of Trustees to do a thorough investigation of the Board of Trustees, especially if they are given the chance to look at a draft report and suggest changes that will be made before the report is released to the public."

A second faculty member who attended Freeh's meeting with the Faculty Council, an executive committee of Penn State's Faculty Senate, said the former FBI director's presentation "left questions in many of our minds just how independent his investigation or report are going to be."

In interviews with "Outside the Lines" this week, both senior faculty members referred to notes they had taken during the meeting with Freeh. They both said Freeh repeatedly referred to the work he was doing on behalf of his "client," which is the Special Committee of Penn State's Board of Trustees. The special committee is chaired by Kenneth Frazier, chief executive of Merck & Company, and a member of Penn State's Board of Trustees.

"When you keep referring to doing work for your 'client,' it takes the independent feel right out of an investigation," said one meeting attendee describing Freeh's remarks. "His 'client' is the board of trustees, so how can he investigate his own client? It's a farce."

Thomas Davies, a spokesman for Freeh and the special committee, declined to comment about the ongoing investigation. A university spokesman, Bill Mahon, referred a call for comment to Davies.

The faculty members also said Freeh told them he would not use polygraph experts to conduct his investigation. One of the professors said, "I find that distressing -- the only way to get honest answers is to have polygraph tests, if used as nothing more than a threat to get the truth."

In recent weeks, an increasingly vocal group of alumni and faculty members has criticized the board's handling of the firing of Paterno, saying the decision was made by the trustees without "due process." Some critics of the board have called for some or all of the current trustees to be replaced.

During a routine meeting on Friday, the board will decide whether its current chairman and executive committee each will receive another one-year term.

When told about Freeh's plans to share draft reports board members, Maribeth Roman Schmidt, a spokesman for the group, Penn Staters for Responsible Stewardship, said: "As an alumnus, I'm disappointed because it doesn't sound like any of the leadership is delivering on all their promises of transparency. If Louis Freeh needs his investigative report to be client-approved, how is this investigation truly independent?"

At three town hall meetings in Pennsylvania and New York City last week, Penn State President Rodney A. Erickson repeatedly said Mr. Freeh's inquiry would be independent and that the final report would not be edited or modified prior to its publication. Erickson has also said that Penn State will be entirely open and transparent about its handling of the fallout from the scandal.

After the Jan. 10 meeting with Freeh, the Faculty Council voted 22-0 to approve a resolution calling for a parallel investigation to be led by a nine-person independent special committee composed of five people, including its chair, who are independent of the university. The committee would specifically be charged with investigating the board of trustees' oversight role.

On Jan. 24, the Faculty Senate will vote on that resolution, as well as sending a "no confidence" message to university trustees, according to the meeting agenda made public on Wednesday. If the vote on the resolution passes, it would be up to Erickson to approve funding for a separate investigation. At a December Faculty Senate Meeting, Anthony Ambrose, the senator with the College of Medicine who made the no-confidence motion, also demanded that the trustees resign.

Freeh, the 61-year-old former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, is chairman of Freeh Group International Solutions LLC, an investigative and consulting firm, and founding partner of law firm Freeh Sporkin Sullivan LLP. Freeh was hired by a board of trustees' special investigations committee to look into allegations involving former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky, who is charged with 52 counts of sexually assaulting 10 boys over nearly a decade.

When he was introduced at a news conference Nov. 21, Freeh said he and his investigative team would look into Penn State's oversight of the Sandusky matter and its culture to try to determine why years, even decades, of alleged sexual abuse went undetected.

"I am committed to ensuring that our independent investigation be conducted in a thorough, fair and comprehensive manner, leaving no stone unturned or without any fear or favor," Freeh said.

Before introducing Freeh, Frazier, a board trustee and the chair of the board's special committee, said, "The entire board of trustees is intent on taking all steps necessary to ensure that our institution never again has to ask whether it did the right thing, or whether or not it could have done more."

Several faculty Senate members said Freeh's meeting on Jan. 10 was viewed by some as "an attempt to thwart our push for an independent investigatory committee." On Thursday evening, members of the board of trustees are having dinner with members of the Senate Council, a gesture that has not occurred for at least a decade, several professors said. [WHY??? Strong-arming? Some other form of influence?]

In a story published in Thursday's New York Times, 13 trustees described their rationale for firing Paterno on Nov. 9. Their reasons included that he failed to do more when told about the an alleged sexual assault by Sandusky in the Penn State locker room in 2002 and what they regarded as the coach's questioning of the board's authority in the days following Sandusky's arrest. They also said that they did not believe Paterno had the ability to continue coaching in the face of the scandal.

The trustees also said former Penn State president Graham Spanier never informed any of them about the scope of the grand jury investigation before Sandusky's arrest Nov. 5. Spanier was also fired by the board of trustees Nov. 9.

"To me, it wasn't about guilt or innocence in a legal sense," Frazier told the newspaper. "It was about these norms of society that I'm talking about: that every adult has a responsibility for every other child in our community."

Trustees told the newspaper that despite firing Paterno, they were honoring the terms of his contract through the end of the 2011 season.

http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/ ... ven=twelve

[Saurian Tail]

Joe Paterno is dead: College football's most successful coach leaves an unmatched legacy forever shadowed by his life's astonishing final chapter

Published: Sunday, January 22, 2012, 10:21 AM Updated: Sunday, January 22, 2012, 10:55 AM

By BOB FLOUNDERS, The Patriot-News

The Lion King is dead.

Joseph Vincent Paterno's unique and seemingly never-ending story has finally ended with the death of college football’s greatest coach at the age of 85.Paterno died today in State College after a brief battle with lung cancer.

Paterno's family released a statement to the Associated Press on his passing.

"He died as he lived," the statement said. "He fought hard until the end, stayed positive, thought only of others and constantly reminded everyone of how blessed his life had been.

"His ambitions were far reaching, but he never believed he had to leave this Happy Valley to achieve them. He was a man devoted to his family, his university, his players and his community."

It was an ending to a historic life that required a shocking rewrite, given the events of the last few months.

continued ...

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index. ... state.html

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[REFER Lanny Davis.]

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Penn State trustees candidate Anthony Lubrano says Lanny Davis quotes ‘reinforce his notion that we all must be dumb’
— The Patriot-News | Updated: Thursday, February 02, 2012, 5:35 PM

Anthony Lubrano, a Penn State alumnus and a candidate for the university’s board of trustees, released a statement today calling for Penn State to cut ties with attorney Lanny Davis. Lubrano asked the question, “Do they think we’re dumb?” in response to quotes by Davis in today’s Patriot-News story about Penn State legal counsel Cynthia Baldwin.

Here's the statement, in its entirety:


After reading Sara Ganim’s article in The Patriot-News today, prominent Penn State alumnus and candidate for the Penn State Board of Trustees, Anthony P. Lubrano, echoed the words of Penn State great Franco Harris, “Do they think we’re dumb?”

“Clearly they must. Why else would the Board of Trustees allow Mr. Davis to continue on his tour de spin? First we had the series of disingenuous interviews conducted by the Wall Street Journal and then we had the interviews with the Patriot-News. Now this. What’s next?”

“To suggest to the Penn State community that Cynthia’s Baldwin role during the Curley and Schultz Grand Jury appearances was all a big misunderstanding—that Schultz and Curley were simply mistaken, sends a very clear message—you must all be dumb. But if that wasn’t enough, he further insults our intelligence when he says, “I believe, having looked into the overall situation, this can be explained by the innocent reality of misunderstanding, stress and incomplete information.”

The Penn State community struggles to heal in the aftermath of the unceremonious firing of Joe Paterno as head football coach.

“I’ve made very clear to the leadership of this Board that the only way for the Penn State community to heal is for the University and the Board of Trustees to issue a public statement of apology to the Paterno family. It’s also now clear to me that they must also terminate their relationship with Mr. Davis. His continued spin is out of control and serves no productive purpose except to reinforce his notion that we must all be dumb.”

tag Sandusky

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State seeks outside jury for Sandusky abuse trial

Calling Penn State University and Centre County "inextricably intertwined; both philosophically and economically," the state attorney general's office on Tuesday filed a motion asking that an outside jury be chosen to hear the criminal case against former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky.

Although the prosecution's motion repeatedly references the "complete saturation" of media coverage in Centre County of the scandal that led to the termination of legendary coach Joe Paterno and the resignation of university President Graham Spanier, it is the relationship of the community to the school that takes up most of the government's argument.

"The citizens of Centre County feel a laudable and proper sense of ownership of, and participation in, the fortunes of Penn State," wrote Senior Deputy Attorney General Joseph McGettigan. "To ask members of that community to break down that alloy and insulate themselves from the institution which informs so many aspects of their lives is asking too much.

"It is unfair and impracticable."

But defense attorney Joseph Amendola disagreed and said he was disappointed in the commonwealth's motion.

"Jerry and I have always believed a fair and impartial jury could be selected from a jury pool comprised of Centre County citizens," Mr. Amendola wrote in an emailed response. "Jerry's case has drawn national attention as a result of which we feel there's no better place than Centre County from which to select fair-minded individuals to sit as jurors in Jerry's case. We will vehemently oppose the commonwealth's motion for a change of venire."

Mr. Sandusky is accused of sexually abusing 10 boys over a 15-year period. A grand jury recommended charges against him in November.

In its motion, the prosecution called media coverage of the Sandusky case "spectacular in its breadth and intensity," and "without analogue or peer in the history of the commonwealth."

But more than that, Mr. McGettigan wrote that if jurors were chosen from Centre County, they would face "a Gordian knot of conscious and even subconscious conflicts and difficulties which the most skillful voir dire could not identify and untangle."

It is unusual for the prosecution to file a motion seeking a change of venire, said criminal law professor John Burkoff at the University of Pittsburgh.

Typically, that is a motion filed by the defense, he said. In this case, the prosecution's request is made even more interesting based on the argument about the relationship of Centre County residents and Penn State.

"[T]he AG is saying that there's every chance that loyalty to Penn State might lead a juror to be biased for or against Sandusky," Mr. Burkoff said. "Remember it's Sandusky's alleged behavior that has besmirched that great university's image. So if the AG is right, a jury from Centre County might well lean toward the prosecution, not the defense."

Mr. Burkoff speculated that because of the defense opposition to it, it is unlikely that Senior Judge John M. Cleland, who is handling the Sandusky case, will grant the government's motion.

No matter what, the professor continued, he does not think it will be overly difficult to pick a jury, even though the case can be characterized as high-profile not only in Pennsylvania but nationally.

"This is a sensational case, but it's not the first sensational case," he said.

Even if members of the jury pool have read about the charges against Mr. Sandusky, that does not mean they will have already formed an opinion about it, Mr. Burkoff said.

More than that, he continued, "there will be people from that venire who won't have paid a bit of attention to this."

In the prosecution's motion, Mr. McGettigan also writes that he does not believe that the trial should be moved out of Centre County, because of that same relationship he identified between the community and Penn State.

He believes that Centre County ought to be the "site of justice," but also that it would be "logistically impractical" to hold the trial elsewhere, since witnesses for both sides reside there.

Mr. Amendola has until next Wednesday to file a written response to the attorney general's motion.

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Link

Prosecutors want Sandusky to stay inside his house

By John P. Martin

Prosecutors on Tuesday asked a judge to order Jerry Sandusky to stay inside his Centre County home until his trial on child sex-abuse charges, saying neighbors and teachers at a nearby elementary school complained about seeing the former football coach outside watching kids play.

"In order to allay the genuine fears of the community, defendant should be confined to his house," Senior Deputy Attorney General Jonelle Eshbach wrote to Judge John M. Cleland.

The request marked the latest salvo between prosecutors and Sandusky's lawyer over the bail conditions for the former Pennsylvania State University football coach accused of molesting 10 boys between 1994 and 2008. Sandusky, 68, has been under house arrest and subject to electronic monitoring since December.

His lawyer, Joseph Amendola, last month asked the judge to let Sandusky have supervised visits with his friends and grandchildren, and to be permitted to travel to meet with his lawyer and case investigators.

In their filing, prosecutors objected to the request, and asked a judge to tighten the restrictions on Sandusky.

"House arrest is not meant to be a house party," their filing said. "The commonwealth believes that (the) defendant should be in jail."

They said his College Township home is close to a playground and an elementary school, and that neighbors and others have expressed concern that Sandusky is free to roam on his property.

Eschbach included a Jan. 26 letter to the Centre County parole and probation department from a state agent who outlined the concerns of Sandusky's neighbors. The agent cited a teacher and school intern who were distressed to see Sandusky outside during a recess on a recent day.

"They had both witnessed Mr. Sandusky on his house rear deck watching the children play," the letter said.

Amendola did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Tuesday. The issue is one of several the judge is scheduled to consider at a pretrial hearing on Friday.

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Sandusky lawyer Evidence is being withheld

Jerry Sandusky's lawyer says prosecutors have redacted or withheld hundreds of pages of evidence in the child sex-abuse case against the former football coach, including records that could help show Sandusky's accusers colluded against him.

In a motion filed in Centre County, lawyer Joseph Amendola asked a judge to order the state attorney general's office to turn over or release more details on dozens of police reports, psychiatric evaluations, interview notes and other material gathered during the three-year investigation.

The request wasn't unusual: Defense lawyers routinely clash with prosecutors over what evidence they get and how quickly they get it.

But the 37-page motion, made public on Tuesday, offered an unusual glimpse of the scope of the investigation against Sandusky, the longtime defensive coordinator to Joe Paterno at Pennsylvania State University.

Amendola's filing cited hundreds of grand jury subpoenas, dozens of police reports, and at least 1,4000 photos investigators seized during the probe. It referenced one subpoena that sought records of all reported child abuse cases "within certain areas" of the state during the years 1997, 1998 and 1999 - a span when Sandusky retired from Penn State to focus on the Second Mile, the charity he founded for underprivileged children.

Along with the filing, Amendola asked Senior Common Pleas Court Judge John M. Cleland to order prosecutors to disclose the telephone numbers of the young men who prosecutors say Sandusky abused between 1994 and 2008, so he can determine if they had contact with each other before or during the investigation.

"In many cases, the defendant believes the accusers may have collaborated with each other in making these false accusations," the motion said.

Sandusky's lawyer offered no proof of any collaboration, nor any indication that the redacted information he sought would exonerate the coach, who has denied the charges that he molested 10 boys.

Many of the requests outlined in the filing lacked context but had just enough detail to stoke new interest in the case.

For instance, Amendola asked for information from an interview that Karen Arnold, a former Centre County assistant district attorney, gave to investigators about her office's 1998 review of allegations that Sandusky abused a boy.

The filing says Arnold had "extensive disagreements" with her boss, former District Attorney Ray Gricar, over the case, but it doesn't elaborate.

Gricar's decision not to prosecute Sandusky is one of the unanswered questions in the case. The 1998 incident was cited in the November grand jury report that led to the current charges.

Gricar has been missing since 2005.

Arnold, who is no longer with the prosecutor's office, has not publicly discussed the Sandusky case, but has previously praised Gricar for his "ironclad ethics."

In his filing, Amendola also asked to see a report he said investigators prepared after an interview with Paterno. It doesn't say when they met with the coach or under what context.

Paterno told a grand jury that an assistant reported seeing Sandusky "fondling a young boy" in a locker room shower in 2002. Paterno reported the incident to two university administrators. He was fired in November and died last month.

The motion also asks for unredacted records of meetings between the accusers and psychologists, and details on a visit by investigators to a potential witness in state prison - without elaborating.

Amendola didn't respond to messages Tuesday seeking comment.

Nils Frederiksen, a spokesman for Attorney General Linda Kelly, said the office wouldn't comment on Amendola's requests before a pretrial hearing scheduled for Friday. "We will address that in court," he said.

At the same proceeding, Cleland is expected to consider prosecutors' request for an out-of-county jury and a bid by Sandusky to modify his bail.

After posting $250,000 bail, the coach was ordered to remain under house arrest and under electronic monitoring at his College Township home. Last month, he asked the judge to allow supervised visits with his friends and grandchildren, and to travel to meet with his lawyer and case investigators.

Prosecutors on Tuesday asked the judge to reject the request and in fact order Sandusky to stay inside his house. They said that neighbors and teachers at a nearby elementary school complained about seeing the former football coach standing outside his house watching kids play.

"House arrest is not meant to be a house party," Senior Deputy Attorney General Jonelle Eshbach wrote. "In order to allay the genuine fears of the community, defendant should be confined to his house."

[Simulist]

Prosecutors want Sandusky to stay inside his house

Or, better: put him inside the big house.

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Link

Sandusky: People have ‘turned on me’
By Jeremy Roebuck


Jerry Sandusky said Friday he is upset with the friends and neighbors who have turned on him since his arrest last year on 50 counts of child sexual abuse.

"I have associated with thousands of young people over the years," he said. "All of a sudden these people turn on me. It's been difficult for me to understand."

His comments came after a court hearing on several issues related to his forthcoming trials, among them questions over the condition of his bail and whether jurors should be selected from outside of Centre County because of overwhelming publicity.

Judge John M. Cleland also announced today he hopes to try Sandusky's case in May.

The former Penn State assistant football coach, whose attorneys opposed the prosecutors' request for out-of-county jurors, briefly took the stand, and the judge questioned him on whether he understood the ramifications of that choice.

Nervously laughing and smiling throughout, Sandusky, founder of the children's charity Second Mile, said he supported his attorneys' decision.

"It's going to be the same anywhere else in the state," he said. "What matters is who is on the jury."

Cleland is expected to rule on the motions as early as next week.

[Simulist]

Jerry Sandusky said Friday he is upset with the friends and neighbors who have turned on him since his arrest last year on 50 counts of child sexual abuse.

"I have associated with thousands of young people over the years," he said. "All of a sudden these people turn on me. It's been difficult for me to understand."

Really? There's now every indication that you've actually been raping little kids.

And people turning on you over that is "difficult" for you "to understand"?!

Just stay inside your house, and shut the fuck up.

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How this guy is out on bail at all just baffles me. The fact that he doesn't understand why people have turned on him just goes to show how deep his socipathology is. He really doesn't think he has done anything wrong.

[Simulist]

Frankly, I would have expected one of his highly-placed co-conspirators to have had him shot by now. They may still.

Dead men tell no tales.

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Jerry Sandusky can visit with his grandchildren while out on bail on sex-abuse charges

Centre County Judge John M. Cleland ruled this morning that Jerry Sandusky can leave his home and see most of his grandchildren -- under certain conditions. Cleland also denied a proprietorial motion to confine Sandusky to the interior of his home.

The 68-year-old former Penn State football coach has been charged with sexually assaulting 10 boys.

He will be able to see his grandchildren at his home provided a parent is in attendance at all times. Sandusky will also be able to talk to them on the telephone, exchange emails or video chat through the computer.

However, his contact with three of his grandchildren will be contingent upon the decision of another judge, who is arbitrating a custody dispute between those children's parents.

Cleland also ruled Sandusky can leave the confines of his home to assist his defense team, provided he alert Centre County probation at least 36 hours in advance and provide a detail itinerary of when he will be leaving, where he will be going and who he will be with.

Sandusky will also be able to continue to go outside the confines of his house and onto his back porch, a habit prosecutors objected to, as his property is adjacent to an elementary school. On the school playground just feet from Sandusky's yard and from inside classrooms, children can see Sandusky when he's outside, and it's been disturbing to classes, prosecutors said in a hearing on Friday.

Cleland denied prosecutors' request to select a jury from outside Centre County because the Attorney General's office had not proved a Centre County jury could not be impartial.

The prosecutors' concerns -- the influence of Penn State and The Second Mile on Centre County, plus media coverage -- are valid, Cleland wrote. But they have not been shown to taint the jury pool. Since Sandusky requested a Centre County jury, Cleland will allow it.

"The presumption should be in favor of at least making an effort to select a fair and impartial jury in the county where the defendant has been charged," Cleland wrote. "It is certainly obvious, however, that jury selection will present its challenges and if, after a reasonable attempt it is apparent that a jury cannot be selected within a reasonable time, then I will reconsider this ruling."

In addition to his grandchildren, Sandusky will also be able to receive adult visitors, Cleland ruled, although again, he will have to comply with certain conditions. In his ruling, the judge said Sandusky can provide the probation office with a list of 12 people -- excluding members of his family -- whom he would like to see.

If approved by the county, they may visit Sandusky at his home, although the number of visitors may be limited. The total time for visits will also be capped at two hours three times a week. Cleland said that in addition to the 12 people named by Sandusky, he may be visited by religious, medical or similar professionals.

Cleland denied Sandusky's request to release the transcripts of witnesses who testified before the grand jury that recommended charges, saying the judge overseeing the grand jury would have to approve such a motion.

But Cleland urged prosecutors to work with the supervising judge to "develop a procedure to provide the subject transcripts to the defendant on a schedule which balances the appropriate interests of maintaining the secrecy of the grand jury while still assuring the trial can proceed without unnecessary disruption."

Sandusky's trial could be as early as May.