Sandusky Accuser Petitions Court to Protect Privacy

Attorneys for a man who settled a claim of child sexual abuse by Jerry Sandusky with Penn State are asking the court to protect his privacy in the lawsuit between the estate of Joe Paterno and the NCAA.

Representing an accuser identified in the court filing as John Doe 150, Philadelphia-area attorneys Slade McLaughlin and Michael Boni urged specially-presiding Judge John Leete of Potter County to issue a protective order regarding any deposition of their client.

In May, Leete ordered Penn State to ask those individuals with whom settlements were made to participate in discovery for the case. This week, Penn State filed a motion seeking to quash a subpoena for documents from the mediation and settlement with two individuals who accused Sandusky, the former Penn State assistant coach and founder of the Second Mile charity, of having abused them in the 1970s and who claim they had informed late Penn State coach Paterno of the allegations.

Penn State is not party in the suit.

And neither is their client, McLaughlin and Boni argue, which is part of the reason he should be afforded privacy. John Doe 150 said he was 14-years-old Sandusky abused him at a football camp in the 1970s and claimed he told Paterno of the abuse. But his claim did not come until well after the sanctions against Penn State were levied.

‘The dispute in question is between the Paterno Estate and the NCAA,’ they wrote. ‘There is no claim that the NCAA sanctioned Penn State because of anything John Doe 150 said or did.’

The Paterno estate and former assistant coaches are suing the NCAA over the sanctions and the use of Louis Freeh’s university-commissioned investigative report in levying them. However, the attorneys note, their client did not come forward until about a year after the sanctions were issued.

John Doe 150, they wrote, was already deposed in Penn State’s lawsuit with its insurer over who is responsible for $93 million in settlement payments to Sandusky accusers. That deposition, in which they say he spoke at length about the alleged abuse and his alleged reporting to Paterno, came a year after he finalized his settlement with the university.

‘Forcing John Doe 150 to sit through yet another deposition is not only duplicative, unnecessary and unduly burdensome, but it would force this victim of childhood sexual abuse to, again, re-live the trauma of his abuse,’ the motion states.

The attorneys note that Pennsylvania law requires that minor victims of abuse not be publicly identified, and that their client ‘like many victims of childhood sexual abuse… has kept the fact of his abuse secret even from those closest to him.’

If a deposition does proceed, the attorneys wrote. John Doe 150 should only be required to answer written questions, or if he is required to sit for a deposition it should be limited in time and address only issues not already covered in previous depositions. Any deposition also should remain highly confidential, they said.

Another claimant who settled with Penn State also filed a motion to protect his privacy.

State College attorney Andrew Shubin filed on Wednesday to seal a motion for a protective order for a man identified as John Doe 71.

The filing states that ‘John Doe 71 is a 60-year old adult survivor of Jerry Sandusky’s child sexual abuse with significant emergent cardiac issues, and the information contained in the motion implicates serious privacy, confidentiality, anonymity and health related safety concerns.’

The motion also states that John Doe 71 is a State College resident and his spouse is a Penn State employee.

Shubin also cites Pennsylvania law that requires child sex abuse victims not be identified.

Sandusky is serving a 30-60 year sentence after being convicted in 2012 on 45 counts related to child sexual abuse. He is currently seeking a new trial under the Post-Conviction Relief Act and has hearings scheduled for August.