Penn State thinks the right course of action is obvious.
The Paterno estate wants a Centre County Court judge to modify a gag order in the estate’s lawsuit with the NCAA, but in new court documents filed Tuesday the university says this request should clearly be denied.
A protective order in the lawsuit prevents either side in the lawsuit from releasing documents and other pre-trial materials to the public. The plaintiffs asked to have this order removed because numerous documents have already been released in a separate lawsuit against the NCAA in Commonwealth Court brought by Pennsylvania State Sen. Jake Corman and Treasurer Rob McCord.
“Plaintiffs argue that, based on certain public disclosures made recently in connection with another case… Plaintiffs should now be allowed to publicly disclose all discovery materials in this case so that they can attempt to sway public opinion in their favor,” Tuesday’s filing reads.
The estate of former Penn State head football coach Joe Paterno — along with university trustee Al Clemens and former assistant coaches Jay Paterno and William Kenney– sued the NCAA for alleged conspiracy and defamation in Centre County Court last year. They argue the NCAA overstepped its authority in the aftermath of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal, decreasing the value of the Paterno estate and make it more difficult for Jay Paterno and Kenney to find work. Penn State was added as a nominal defendant in February.
The Corman and McCord lawsuit also sprang from the aftermath of the Sandusky scandal. A looming February trial in their lawsuit will determine the legal validity of consent decree between Penn State and the NCAA, which allowed the NCAA to impose harsh sanctions against the university. A number of documents released in the lawsuit have garnered intense media attention, including internal NCAA emails from 2012 in which top NCAA officials refer to the threat of sanctions against Penn State as “a bluff.”
The plaintiffs in the Paterno lawsuit say these materials overlap with the documents in their own lawsuit, and they should be allowed to release them for that reason.
In its latest filing, Penn State refers to this request as a “public relations” strategy and an “abuse of the discovery process” that will taint the potential jury pool.
In a filing earlier this month in the Paterno suit, the NCAA made a similar argument, claiming that the Paterno estate wanted to fight the lawsuit in the newsroom instead of the courtroom.
“Penn State will not here repeat the arguments it previously advanced on this issue… There is no reason to reconsider them, or to modify the Protective Order,” Tuesday’s filing reads.
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