Sandusky in Court: The Bob Costas Factor
By: Andy Mehalshick
Updated: January 10, 2013
Jerry Sandusky seemed relaxed and very confident as he came to Centre County Court Thursday morning. He wants his conviction from last June thrown out. A jury found him guilty of sexually molesting 10 young boys. His lawyers argue they were not given enough time to review what they describe as an overwhelming amount of documents handed over by the prosecution. They also argue that the Deputy Attorney General, Joe McGettigan, during his closing argument to the jury, violated Sandusky's Fifth Amendment rights not to testify. That Sandusky allegedly showed his guilt when he only spoke to NBC News anchor Bob Costas in the days after he was arrested. A TV interview some say convicted Sandusky in the court of public opinion.
Bob Costas
"Are you a pedophile?"
Jerry Sandusky
"No."
Costas
"Are you sexually attracted to young boys?"
Sandusky
"Sexually attracted, no, I enjoy young people."
His lawyer argues that comment tainted the jury.
"The prosecutor talked about what Jerry said to Costas on TV. Then he said 'You only heard him on TV, only on TV,' implying that he didn't testify at trial." said Norris Gelman, Sandusky's Lawyer
But McGettigan says that is pure nonsense.
SOT Joe McGettigan, Deputy Attorney General
"They were trying to argue that my comment was on the defendant's silence and it wasn't, it was on the defendant's actual... when he spoke to a third party. It had nothing to do with Bob Costas as such but had to do with him being interviewed by a third party publicly and failure to respond to questions." said Joe McGettigan, Deputy Attorney General .
No word on when the Judge will make a ruling on a new trial.


