Bellefonte, PA (Sports Network) - A 24-year-old man whose father is employed
at Penn State and an older women whose physician husband works in the same
medical group as the father of a former assistant coach were among the jurors
selected Monday for the Jerry Sandusky child sex-abuse case.
A total of eight jurors were picked on the first day out of 16 who will be
chosen to serve, including four alternates. Jury selection will resume on
Wednesday.
Sandusky, the former Penn State defensive coordinator, is charged with 52
counts of felony and misdemeanor sexual offenses against children. He has
denied the charges.
The trial is expected to begin next week after months of build-up, legal
maneuvering and media coverage.
The first three jurors selected early Monday -- all white -- included the man
whose father works for the university and the woman with a connection to Mike
McQueary's father, outlining the difficult task of finding people who are not
connected in some way to the university that casts such a large shadow over
the area.
It wasn't a problem for one middle-aged woman who was described as not having
consumed a lot of media information about the case. The woman, who has two
daughters and works at Walmart, was selected quickly after about 10 minutes of
questioning.
Around 17 potential jurors raised their hands to indicate they knew one or
more people on the list of about two dozen potential prosecution witnesses,
including McQueary, the former assistant coach who said he witnessed Sandusky
abusing a boy in the Penn State showers, and McQueary's father.
Twenty hands shot up when defense attorney Joseph Amendola showed his list of
about five dozen potential witnesses, including Sue Paterno, the widow of late
Penn State coach Joe Paterno, and their son Jay; as well as Sara Ganim, the
Patriot-News crime reporter who won a Pulitzer Prize for covering the case.
Other potential witnesses include the current and former CEOs of the Second
Mile, the charity Sandusky founded and is accused of using to groom potential
victims.
The Sports Network