By Mark Shade
BELLEFONTE, Pa., Jan 10 (Reuters) - Former Penn State
football coach Jerry Sandusky, appearing thinner but upbeat,
returned to court on Thursday to hear his lawyers argue that his
child sex abuse conviction should be tossed because they had
insufficient time to prepare for trial.
Sandusky, 68, dressed in a red prison uniform, smiled at
about a dozen supporters in the courtroom, including his wife,
Dottie, as he was escorted to the defense table.
"How are you guys?" he asked the group, who had gathered at
the same courthouse where the former assistant coach was
convicted nearly seven months ago.
After the 90-minute hearing in the courthouse just a few
miles from the Penn State campus, Sandusky, draped in a maroon
coat marked CCCF for Centre County Correctional Facility and
clasping a legal folder in his handcuffed hands, returned to a
sheriff's cruiser to be taken back to prison to continue serving
his 30-to-60-year sentence.
His lawyers urged the judge to overturn Sandusky's June
conviction on charges of molesting 10 boys over a 15-year
period, a scandal that rocked college sports, focused national
attention on child sex abuse and tarnished the legacy of late
Penn State coach Joe Paterno.
They argued that Sandusky should be granted a new trial
because they were not given adequate time to fully prepare for
the one that ended in his conviction on 45 counts of abuse.
Joseph Amendola, one of Sandusky's trial attorneys, took the
witness stand and told Judge John Cleland that he had received
more than 12,000 pages of documents and hundreds of pictures to
study before the trial.
"We didn't have time to be thorough," Amendola testified.
Chief prosecutor Joe McGettigan asked Amendola if he had
looked over all the evidence since the trial concluded. Amendola
said he had reviewed it, and later acknowledged that he had
found nothing that would have changed his trial strategy.
"I think Mr. Amendola properly and truthfully testified that
among the reams of material he kept insisting that he needed,
had he had time to review every single page it wouldn't have
made a whit of difference in his defense," McGettigan said after
the hearing.
Judge Cleland did not issue a ruling.
In March 2012, Cleland delayed the start date of the trial
by three weeks, but later denied another motion by Amendola to
further delay the trial. Pennsylvania appeals courts rejected an
appeal of Cleland's ruling.
A grand jury in November charged the university's former
president, Graham Spanier, with participating in a "conspiracy
of silence" to cover up Sandusky's behavior.
Two other officials, Athletic Director Tim Curley and
retired Vice President Gary Schultz, also face new charges of
child endangerment, criminal conspiracy and obstruction of
justice.
They were charged in November 2011 with failure to report
suspected abuse and perjury, and both have pleaded not guilty.
Trustees fired Spanier and the revered head football coach
Paterno in November 2011 in the wake of the charges against
Sandusky. Paterno died last January of lung cancer.
The National Collegiate Athletic Association, the governing
body for college sports, slapped Penn State with a $60 million
fine and voided the 14 seasons of football victories that
Sandusky coached. At least three of Sandusky's victims have sued
Penn State.
Earlier this month, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett sued
the NCAA over its sanctions.
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