Gary Schultz, one of the two former Penn State administrators charged with perjury and failure to report suspected abuse relating to the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse case, motioned Monday to separate his trial from Tim Curley’s , the other former administrator charged with the same offenses.
Schultz’s attorney wrote in the motion that the court may separate trials if a defendant is “prejudiced by a joint trial,” which the motion argues Schultz would be if he and Curley would be tried together.
Schultz’s attorneys also filed a brief in support of the motion Monday, further arguing that because Curley implicates Schultz several times in his grand jury testimony, Schultz would be deprived of his sixth amendment right to confront someone who has accused him of a crime if Curley were to choose to not testify, according to the motion.
The motion also requests that the courts separate Schultz’s perjury charge from his failure to report charge so Schultz would have a different trial for each offense.
Matt McClenahen, of McClenahen Law Firm in State College, said Schultz’s attorneys would want to separate the two charges because the perjury case, a felony, would be heard in front of a jury, whereas the failure to report charge, a summary offense, would be heard in front of only a judge.
“Not only would you want to separate trials, but I think [Curley and Schultz] are entitled to it,” McClenahen said.
Curley and Schultz filed earlier this month to have the failure to report charge thrown out because the statute of limitations has expired, but no ruling has been made with regard to that motion, as previously reported.
The failure to report charge relates to a 2001 incident when then-graduate assistant Mike McQueary said he saw Sandusky doing something of a “sexual nature” with a boy in the Lasch Football Building shower, according to McQueary’s grand jury testimony. McQueary told late head football coach Joe Paterno the next day, who in turn told Curley and Schultz, according to McQueary’s testimony.
No one ever reported the information about the abuse to police.
Curley and Schultz have both maintained their innocence through their attorneys, Caroline Roberto and Tom Farrell, respectively.
