Reported By: Gary Sinderson
Written By: Marc Stempka
BELLEFONTE, Pa. -- Attorneys representing the parties involved in the Paterno and National Collegiate Athletic Association case continued their legal wrangling Monday morning in Centre County, with both sides battling over whether or not more documents should be released to the Paterno family for their case and the legality of the consent decree.
Those documents would primarily come from Pennsylvania State University, the third, and most reluctant, party in the court case. The focus of the morning portion of the hearing was the Paterno family estate wanting to serve subpoenas on PSU, requesting documents related to the Freeh report.
The Paterno family lawyers told Senior Judge John Leete - who was specially assigned to this case - they need the documents to continue to build their case.
The Freeh report, paid for by Penn State and accepted as their internal investigation into the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal, led to the NCAA imposing strict sanctions against the school, football program and stripping wins from the late head coach Joe Paterno's 45-year tenure at the school.
Penn State attorneys have said releasing any additional documents related to the Freeh report would violate attorney-client privilege.
The hearing started at 10 a.m. at the courthouse in Bellefonte and lasted just about two hours, before breaking for a short recess and resuming just about 12:30 p.m.
In addition to the document release requests, Leete also heard a ping-pong match of sorts, as the Paterno family estate and NCAA argued back and forth over whether or not the consent decree was legal.
Penn State entered a consent decree with the NCAA, accepting the penalties and sanctions being imposed upon the school, which were set based on the NCAA's accepting of the Freeh report.
Paterno family attorneys argued whether or not the NCAA should have been involved in any way from the beginning, given that the Sandusky case was a criminal matter.
Penn State attorneys maintained the school entered the consent decree willingly and the school not forced into the agreement.
It was not clear whether or not Leete would make a ruling Monday, or take the arguments under advisement and rule at later time.
6 News reporter Gary Sinderson has been following the Sandusky case and related court processes from the beginning, watch his reports on Monday's hearing beginning on 6 News at 5.
