Attorney General says She’s Not Holding Up Legal Process in Curley/Schultz Case

Attorney General Kathleen Kane says she’s not holding up the trial of two former Penn State administrators. She was responding to a not-so-subtle nudge from grand jury Judge Barry Feudale.

In Tuesday’s ruling on a procedural issue, Feudale criticized Tim Curley and Gary Schultz and their attorneys for trying to delay the proceedings.

“In this Court’s view Defendants’ various motions, appeals and assertions (all of which are within their rights) are an attempt to delay the case from being heard before the proper tribunals,” the ruling reads.

The judge also delivered a message to Kane’s office saying, “The Office of Attorney General should proceed to move this case forward absent a stay by the Supreme Court. Continued delay of this case is not in the interest of justice as to Defendants and the alleged victims.”

Curley and Schultz are charged with perjury, endangering the welfare of children, failure to properly report suspected abuse and conspiracy stemming from the Jerry Sandusky scandal.

Lawyers for both former Penn State administrators want the grand jury testimony thrown out because they believe former Penn State General Counsel Cynthia Baldwin misrepresented the men during the grand jury process.

The Penn State administrators, as well as former President Graham Spanier, were charged last November and they still have not had their preliminary hearing — something Feudale seems to imply is the fault of the attorney general.

A spokesperson for Kane responded to Feudale’s comments in a statement, “Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane and the attorneys handling this case are experienced prosecutors who are certainly well aware of the direction that this particular case needs to go.”

Kane’s spokesperson suggested that defense motions are responsible for the delays.

“Delays in this case, since the filing of additional charges, have been caused exclusively by defense motions that were pending before Judge Feudale for a number of months,” the statement said. “Last month, Judge Feudale’s order regarding those motions was appealed by two of the defendants and that appeal is currently pending before the Supreme Court. The Attorney General is appreciative that Judge Feudale recognizes that further delays are harmful and looks forward to a fair and expeditious resolution of these cases.”

It remains to be seen when Kane will move to hold a preliminary hearing in Dauphin County. Some experts estimate that the trial for Curley, Schultz and Spanier won’t begin until 2014 – nearly three years after the first charges were filed.