Man who says Penn State's Sandusky abused him in 1988 seeks day in court

[October 22, 2015]  By David DeKok
 
 HARRISBURG, Pa. (Reuters) - A Massachusetts man who says Jerry Sandusky molested him as a teenager will argue in a Pennsylvania court that he should have his day in court even though the alleged abuse by the former Penn State assistant football coach dates back to 1988.

Lawyers for Anthony Spinelli, Jr., now 43, will argue on Thursday that the statute of limitations - the deadline for bringing criminal charges - still had years to run in the case.

Attorney General Kathleen Kane ruled in May that while Spinelli’s complaint was “compelling,” she believed too much time had elapsed to prosecute the case successfully.

“It’s not a question of credibility,” Daniel Kiss, one of Spinelli’s lawyers, told Reuters. “It’s a question of whether the statute of limitations has run.”

Judge Thomas Kistler will preside over Thursday's hearing at Centre County Court of Common Pleas in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania.

In 2012, Sandusky was convicted of 45 of 48 child molestation charges filed against him, but Spinelli's case was not part of the prosecution. The coach, who served under legendary Penn State head coach Joe Paterno, is serving a 30-60 year sentence in the state’s “supermax” prison in Waynesburg.

Spinelli, then a 16-year-old standout high school quarterback from Leominster, Massachusetts, was twice molested by Sandusky in June 1988 at an invitation-only Penn State football camp for young players, according to court documents.

“Due to [Sandusky’s] physical size and stature, as well as his role as instructing coach of the camp, he felt unable to stop the act or to stop the defendant,” court papers say.

After Sandusky’s arrest in 2011, Spinelli came forward.

Although the Pennsylvania State Police found his complaint credible, the appeal brief says, then-Attorney General Linda Kelly took no action. He was not among the eight victims who testified in Sandusky’s 2012 trial.

Kelly could not be reached by Reuters for comment. Kane took over the post in 2013.

Pennsylvania has extended its statute of limitations for sex crimes several times, Spinelli’s lawyers say. By their calculations, the deadline is not until Nov. 5, 2016, and possibly not until Dec. 26, 2021.

Kane, on the other hand, believed the deadline was Dec. 26, 2001, when Spinelli turned 30 years old.

(Reporting by Frank McGurty in New York; Editing by Matthew Lewis)

[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]

Copyright 2015 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.