Jerry Sandusky trial: Penn State connections unavoidable in first day of jury selections

Nine of 12 jurors and four alternates were seated today for the trial of the assistant football coach accused of abusing 10 boys.

Connections to Penn State weren’t enough to keep prospective jurors from being chosen to decide Jerry Sandusky’s fate on child sexual abuse charges.

The start of jury selection today showed the strength of Sandusky’s and Penn State’s links to their rural central Pennsylvania community, but the presiding judge indicated that those connections weren’t necessarily enough to keep them from being one of the 12 jurors or four alternates.

Nine jurors were selected today, including a longtime Penn State football season ticketholder.

In the first questioning of 40 prospective jurors, about half said they or immediate family members worked at Penn State or were university retirees. One woman rented apartments to college students. Four knew Sandusky, a former Penn State assistant football coach. Two knew his wife.

Sandusky’s lawyer won the right to have jurors chosen from the local community, and prosecutors had concerns that Centre County might prove to be nearly synonymous with Penn State. Sandusky had helped build the football team’s reputation as a defensive powerhouse known as “Linebacker U,” his arrest toppled Joe Paterno from the head coaching position just months before his death from cancer, and some of the alleged attacks on children occurred inside university showers.

One of the very first jurors to be seated wasn’t just a season ticketholder since the 1970s: She said John McQueary — a possible trial witness and the father of a key witness — once worked with her husband.

When Sandusky’s lawyer sought to have her removed for cause, Judge John Cleland signaled he would need more grounds.

“We’re in Centre County. We’re in rural Pennsylvania,” Cleland said, noting that such connections “can’t be avoided.”