Jurors in Jerry Sandusky's child sexual abuse trial get a long weekend. Testimony concluded for the week Thursday at the Centre County Courthouse. The former Penn State assistant football coach is charged with 52 counts of abusing 10 children over a 15 year period.
The prosecution did not rest its case but is expected to wrap up its testimony Monday, and the defense would then begin calling witnesses.
Although there was no testimony Friday, the presiding judge did issue a ruling. Sandusky will be allowed to have an expert testify about a psychiatric condition that could explain his letters and other alleged grooming of victims.
Judge John Cleland ruled in favor of a defense motion seeking to put evidence of "histrionic personality disorder" before jurors in his child sexual abuse case.
Cleland's order says Sandusky must also make himself available for prosecutors so they can prepare rebuttal testimony. The defense says people with the disorder wouldn't necessarily be grooming boys to molest them, but instead to "satisfy the needs of a psyche" with the disorder.
Prosecutors have finished calling to the stand eight young men who've claimed that Sandusky sexually abused them in a variety of ways when they were children. There are also two alleged victims who haven't been identified.
The now 18 year old, identified by the prosecution as Victim 9, testified Thursday that the 68-year-old Sandusky raped him repeatedly in the defendant's basement, where his muffled cries went unanswered.
Meantime, Penn State is asking a judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed against the university by its former president. Graham Spanier sued May 25 to obtain old emails that he said are necessary to respond to Penn State's child sex-abuse probe.
There have been multiple media reports that investigators have emails in which former Penn State Vice President Gary Schultz and the university's then-president Graham Spanier discuss not alerting child welfare authorities to former assistant coach Mike McQueary's report of Jerry Sandusky showering with a boy.
According to the Centre Daily Times, the university contends it can't disclose the messages because of an ongoing investigation by the state attorney general.
Documents filed by Penn State yesterday in Centre County court also argue that Spanier should have first requested the emails under the state's Right-to-Know law.
Penn State is conducting an internal investigation of how the university handled child molestation allegations against former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky.
We have summaries of the testimony from the first week of the trial.
