Former Penn State vice president Gary Schultz and athletic director Tim Curley tried to have their perjury charges in the Jerry Sandusky child molestation thrown out of court. Didn’t happen.
A judge on Wednesday upheld charges against the two Penn State administrators who were accused of lying to a grand jury that investigated allegations that Sandusky sexually abused children.
The judge did not rule on the other count they each face, failure to properly report suspected child abuse. In that case, the defendants have argued the statute of limitations has expired. The judge said that dismissal request would be ruled on separately.
The judge said the claim made by Schultz and Curley that there is insufficient evidence to corroborate the perjury charges will be more appropriately pursued during the trial. He also said prosecutors have given the defendants sufficient information about which parts of their grand jury testimony make up the perjury allegation.
”Having satisfied the request to specify the statements it will seek to prove as perjurious, we find that the commonwealth need not identify the manner in which it intends to prove the alleged falsity of each statement,” the judge wrote.
The perjury counts are felonies, while failure to report suspected child abuse is a summary offense, less serious than a misdemeanor.
Schultz, the university’s former vice president for business and finance, has retired. Curley, the athletic director, is on leave. Their trial is scheduled to begin in Harrisburg with jury selection on Jan. 7. Defense lawyers are seeking to split the criminal cases against them.
A spokesman for the attorney general’s office declined to comment on Wednesday. A spokeswoman for the defendants’ lawyers did not immediately return messages seeking comment.
Sandusky, a former Penn State defensive coordinator, was convicted in June on charges he sexually abused 10 boys, some on campus. He remains jailed awaiting sentencing Oct. 9.