Judge Cleland Asks Superior Court to Dismiss Appeal

Judge John Cleland asked the Pennsylvania Superior Court on Thursday to dismiss Karl Rominger’s appeal of a gag order issued after Jerry Sandusky was convicted.

Rominger filed the appeal the appeal in June after Cleland ruled that information not used in trial was prohibited from being disseminated to any parties outside of counsel. According to his appeal, Rominger said the court ‘erred’ in issuing the order.

Cleland issued the order in an effort to protect the integrity of the ongoing grand jury investigation and to protect the identities of any alleged victims of Sandusky or witnesses who did not take the stand.

In August, Cleland released the transcript of a hearing in which Frank Fina, one of the Sandusky trial prosecutors from the Attorney General’s Office, explained why the order should be in place.

Fina said included in the protected material is ‘highly incriminating information’ against Sandusky. 

‘I’m talking about incriminating information beyond that which was presented during the trial. There’s a great deal of that in the discovery. Evidence that, for a variety of reasons, was highly incriminating against Mr. Sandusky,’ Fina said.  

Sandusky, 68, was convicted on June 22 on 45 of 48 counts of sexually abusing 10 boys over a 15-year period. He is currently incarcerated at the Centre County Correctional Facility and will be sentenced on Oct. 9.