A Centre County judge barred all involved parties from further public comment yesterday in the case of Penn State football player Austin Scott, who is accused of raping a female student earlier this month.
Centre County Judge Charles Brown approved the commonwealth's motion for a gag order, which prohibits Scott's attorneys, the District Attorney's office, the alleged victim, her family and Penn State Police from "speaking with any individual known to or identifying themselves as a member of the press."
Scott, 22, of Allentown, was charged with rape, sexual assault, simple assault and two counts of indecent assault, stemming from an Oct. 5 incident with a female student at his Nittany Apartments residence. The charges were bound over to trial Wednesday at his preliminary hearing.
In his request to Brown, Centre County Assistant District Attorney Lance Marshall cited comments made by John Karoly, one of Scott's two attorneys, in an article published Thursday in The Daily Collegian.
Karoly said the alleged victim's testimony was "totally unreliable" and the worst complainant testimony he has seen in his more than 30-year career.
Also in his motion, Marshall cited an article printed Friday by Allentown's The Morning Call, in which Marshall said Karoly openly talked about "matters that are and can reasonably be expected to be the subject of pretrial motions," referring to statements Karoly made regarding the alleged victim's past.
The woman accusing Scott of rape accused another male student of rape in 2003 at Moravian College. The defendant, Christopher Burgan, was later acquitted.
Marshall requested the gag order on Friday to prohibit Scott's defense team from further comment, which could taint the jury and call for an "expensive out-of-county" jury to be assembled.
"In the two days since the preliminary hearing, the defendant's attorney is potentially damaging due process and the right to have a fair trial by reports of matters that are sensational, inflammatory and irrelevant," Marshall wrote in his request to the judge in reference to Karoly.
At Scott's preliminary hearing Wednesday, Karoly said police told the commonwealth attorneys not to prosecute the case; however, Marshall and Centre County District Attorney Michael Madeira vehemently denied such an exchange took place.
"That's a lie," Marshall said.
Over the weekend, attorneys from both sides of the case released statements to the press.
"We do believe, especially in light of [former Penn State football player] Scott Paxson['s] case and Austin Scott's case, that Penn State football players are treated differently by this District Attorney's office than 'regular citizens,' " the defense's press release states. "Apparently, they are not afforded the presumption of innocence the law requires."
Paxson, a former defensive tackle for the Nittany Lions, was charged with sexual assault, indecent assault and aggravated indecent assault in March 2005 after a female Penn State student told police Paxson had raped her in his Nittany Apartments residence in December 2004. The sexual assault charge was later dropped, and, through a plea bargain, Paxson traded his remaining charges for a disorderly conduct citation, to which he pleaded no contest, just two hours into his trial.
However, Madeira has continually said his office is treating Scott's case just as it would treat any other rape case, and it does not and has not given special treatment to football players.
Karoly said last week that the District Attorney's office timed Scott's arraignment right before Penn State's homecoming to stir up media attention.
But Madeira said his office filed charges as soon as university police alerted him the investigation was complete, and that the arraignment date was not planned to coincide with the Penn State homecoming game.
