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Attyn General Office's screwups in prosecuting Penn State still under top-secret seal
http://cumberlink.com/news/state-and-regional/penn-state-ex-officials-case-moves-along-under-seal/article_0ac721ee-2bd0-11e4-a5f3-0019bb2963f4.htmlThe Pa. Attorney General's Office was under Republican control when the Sandusky investigation was repeatedly flubbed. Then, they kept flubbing everything when they used a Grand Jury to go after top Penn State administrators for allegedly covering up reports about Sandusky.
The administrators traveled to the first Grand Jury proceedings with a lawyer (Baldwin) provided by Penn State. They thought the lawyer was representing them, and even said so at the Grand Jury. Then, the bozos prosecuting the case decided to use that same attorney as a key prosecution witness against the administrators.
The administrators made legal filings claiming that this was in violation of many rules of legal process. Many outside observers have agreed. The arguments about this issue have continued in top secret fashion for 6 months. All of the filings have been ordered to be kept top-secret by the judge, and even the parties have not been allowed to see all of the filings. A newspaper sought the release of filings, and that request was then made top-secret by the judge.
Excerpts:
"Baldwin later testified about Spanier, which raises issues of attorney-client privilege. She indicated she represented Penn State but did not correct the records when the defendants said she was their lawyer. If she wasn't their lawyer, grand jury rules would normally have prohibited her from being in the room when they testified.
.... It's also uncommon to have so many documents sealed, Marsico said.
...Among the sealed filings is a request by PA Media Group — publisher of pennlive.com and The Patriot-News of Harrisburg — to unseal records.Craig Staudenmaier, PA Media Group's lawyer ...
"The judge has issued an order basically sealing the documents that were filed until he has a chance to further review them," Staudenmaier said. "In fact, my clients haven't even seen some of the responses filed."