Bellefonte, PA (Sports Network) - Jury selection was completed Tuesday for the
sex-abuse case of former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky, who
will go on trial next week charged with 52 counts of alleged sexual offenses
against 10 children.
It took just two days to pick the 12 men and women who will hear the case and
the four who will serve as alternates beginning Monday, when the trial is set
to get underway after months of legal maneuvering and media coverage.
Nine jurors were selected Monday and seven more on Tuesday, many of them with
a connection to Penn State, illustrating the difficult task of finding anyone
in the area who is not linked in some way to the university that casts such a
large shadow over the population.
One rejected juror, Alissa Milanese of Bellefonte, said her family worked with
the Second Mile, the charity Sandusky founded and is accused of using to groom
potential victims, but didn't know if that's why she hadn't been chosen.
Milanese told reporters outside the courthouse that she doesn't know Sandusky
personally and thinks she could have been impartial, but that serving on the
jury would have been tough.
"It would have been very nerve-wracking," she said.
Monday's selected jurors included a 24-year-old man whose father is employed
at Penn State, and a woman whose physician husband works in the same medical
group as the father of Mike McQueary, a likely key witness.
Another woman was described as not having consumed a lot of media information
about the case and was selected quickly after about 10 minutes of questioning.
Sandusky, who has denied the charges, will see familiar faces in the courtroom
no matter what.
The list of potential prosecution witnesses includes McQueary, the former
assistant coach who said he witnessed Sandusky abusing a boy in the Penn State
showers, and McQueary's father.
Defense attorney Joseph Amendola's potential witnesses include Sue Paterno,
the widow of late Penn State coach Joe Paterno, and their son Jay.
The current and former CEOs of the Second Mile are also among the list of
people who could testify.
The Sports Network