A Philadelphia judge granted Penn State’s attorney’s request to stay the civil suit filed by Jerry Sandusky’s Victim 1 until the grand jury investigation wraps and the criminal trial for former Penn State administrators is over.
According to the Centre Daily Times, the judge put the hold on the civil suit filed by Victim 1’s attorney on Friday.
Counsel for the university, James Keller, filed the motion two weeks ago, citing two other civil cases against Penn State that were each recently granted a stay ‘in light of the ongoing and well-publicized criminal proceedings against university officials.’ Both cases remain active, as would the civil suit filed by Victim 1.
‘This was nothing more than a procedural move. The university remains committed to resolving the victims’ claims in a fair manner that also respects their privacy,’ Penn State spokesman Dave La Torre said in an email last week.
Former Penn State vice president Gary Schultz and former Penn State athletic director Tim Curley. Schultz recently filed to have his case separated from Curley’s as well as his charges severed from one another.
Both men face a charge of felony perjury for allegedly lying to a grand jury and a summary charge of failure to report.
Keller filed a motion for extraordinary relief and asked for consideration of the motion to be expedited, ‘as a responsive pleading deadline is fast approaching,’ he wrote in his letter sent to the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas.
Victim 1, who testified in June that as a minor, he was sexually abused by Sandusky multiple times, filed the civil suit through an attorney in August. Victim 1 was the first to report his abuse by Sandusky to officials. At first,no one believed him, but his allegations eventually sparked an investigation that led to the grand jury report that indicted Sandusky and ousted top leadership at Penn State.
Sandusky, 68, was convicted on June 22 on 45 of 48 counts of sexually abusing 10 boys over a 15-year period. He will be sentenced on Oct. 9 in the Centre County Courthouse.
