Attorneys for the Paterno estate have served Penn State with a subpoena asking the university to produce a large number of documents connected to the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse case.
New court documents filed Thursday say Paula Ammerman, former director of Penn State’s board of trustees office, must testify at a hearing and produce “all documents that [she] created, sent or received as Secretary to the Board of Trustees that relate or refer to Sandusky, Paterno, the Freeh investigation, the Freeh Report, the NCAA investigation or the Consent Decree.”
The hearing will be held 9 a.m. on December 15, 2014 at the Penn State Hotel at Innovation Park.
The subpoena is the result of months of legal tug-of-war in a lawsuit filed by the Paterno estate, former Penn State trustee Al Clemens and former Penn State assistant football coaches Jay Paterno and William Kenney. Their lawsuit claims the NCAA wrongly implicated Joe Paterno in the Sandusky scandal. Jay Paterno and Kenney claim they’ve had trouble finding work because of the sanctions imposed by the NCAA. The plaintiffs are seeking monetary damages, and nullification of the controversial consent degree, the agreement the university signed with the NCAA that led to the sanctions. Penn State was added as a nominal defendant to the lawsuit against the NCAA in January. Since then, the university has fought against the release of those documents.
The plaintiffs requested access to a database of millions of electronic documents they claim are relevant to their case. Penn State argues that the documents are subject to the same level as confidentiality as conversation between an attorney and client.
Many of the documents relate to investigator Louis Freeh, who was hired by the university in 2011 to review its handling of the Sandusky scandal. Freeh’s controversial report, released in 2012, claimed university officials mismanaged the scandal and covered up key facts from the public and law enforcement.
Penn State claims the the Freeh group provided legal counsel during the course of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse case. The university argues the documents requested in the Paterno lawsuit are confidential under attorney-client privilege and should not be released.
A September court ruling overturned that argument, finding only communications directly between Penn State and the Freeh group are subject to attorney-client privilege. Documents that related to the Sandusky scandal or Freeh investigation that are not directly between Penn State and Freeh are fair game for the plaintiffs to request.
Penn State has appealed that ruling to the Pennsylvania Superior Court. Paterno, Kenney and the Paterno estate have filed a motion opposing that appeal. Penn State also requested that the case in the court of common pleas to be put on hold until their appeal is resolved, which the plaintiffs also oppose.
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