Jerry Sandusky’s Lawyer Asks For All 52 Sex Abuse Charges Against Him Be Dropped
March 23 2012, Published 1:30 p.m. ET
By Debbie Emery - Breaking Celebrity News Reporter
Former Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky’s attorney has requested that a judge dismiss all 52 counts of sex abuse against his client, claiming they were too vague, too flimsy, or happened too long ago to be adequately defended in court.
Joseph Amendola argued that charges involving at least eight of the 10 boys that his client is accused of molesting fell outside the statute of limitations and that others could not be sufficiently substantiated by witnesses, reported the Boston Herald.
"The defendant submits that his due-process rights will be violated if he is forced to proceed to trial," Amendola wrote to the judge on Thursday. "He cannot adequately prepare and present a defense to those charges."
As Breaking Celebrity News previously reported, the 67-year-old ex-coach stands accused of molesting eight boys over 15 years, from 1994 to 2009. He was arraigned late last year on 40 criminal counts -- 21 of them felonies -- including multiple counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, corruption of minors, endangering the welfare of a child, indecent assault and unlawful contact with a minor, along with single counts of aggravated indecent assault and attempted indecent assault.
While the latest filing is unlikely to result in the dismissal of the case against Sandusky, it does highlight a number of weak points that prosecutors will have to face when it goes to trial in May.
Another challenge that they will have to overcome is the inability to identify two of Sandusky’s purported victims. Though it is possible under the law to prosecute child sex crimes without victim testimony, Amendola argued Thursday that witness testimony expected to support those two cases would not hold up in court.