FILE – In this Oct. 29, 2015 file photo, former Penn State University assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, center, arrives at the Centre County Courthouse for a hearing about his appeal on his child sex-abuse conviction, in Bellefonte, Pa. Judge John Foradora ordered Wednesday, Aug. 8, 2019, Sandusky be taken to a central Pennsylvania courtroom in September for resentencing on his 45-count child sexual abuse conviction, six months after an appeals court ruled mandatory minimums had been improperly applied. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A state judge has ordered Jerry Sandusky be taken to a central Pennsylvania courtroom next month for resentencing on his 45-count child sexual abuse conviction, six months after an appeals court ruled mandatory minimums had been improperly applied.
Judge John Foradora filed an order Wednesday that scheduled the proceeding for Sept. 23.
Sandusky, a former Penn State assistant football coach, was convicted in 2012 of the sexual abuse of 10 boys, including attacks on campus. Victims testified he subjected them to abuse that ranged from grooming to violent sexual attacks. He was sentenced to 30 to 60 years, but that term was overturned by Superior Court in February.
Foradora directed Sandusky to be transported to appear at the hearing.
Sandusky’s defense lawyer has said it was not clear whether a substantially different sentence will result.
The state Supreme Court last month declined to grant Sandusky, 75, a chance to argue he deserves a new trial, and Sandusky defense attorney Al Lindsay said Thursday he is working on a petition that would seek relief in the federal courts.
“We’re anxious to have the sentencing reconsidered,” Lindsay said. “We are certainly going to argue for a shorter sentence.”
A spokeswoman for the attorney general’s office declined comment.
Sandusky’s November 2011 arrest shook Penn State, prompting the firing of Hall of Fame head coach Joe Paterno and the ousting of then-university President Graham Spanier. The university subsequently paid more than $100 million to people who said they had been abused by Sandusky.
Spanier and two other senior administrators, Tim Curley and Gary Schultz, were charged over their response to reports about Sandusky. Curley and Schultz pleaded guilty to child endangerment in 2017 for failing to notify authorities in 2001 of a complaint about Sandusky and a boy in a team shower.
Spanier went to trial and was convicted of misdemeanor child endangerment, but a federal judge in April threw it out, ruling he had been improperly charged under a 2007 law for actions that occurred in 2001.
The attorney general’s office is appealing that decision to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
By MARK SCOLFORO
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