Jury Selection

HARRISBURG - Jerry Sandusky's attorney wants the judge in his child-sex-abuse case to delay the start of trial until mid-July. In a motion filed yesterday, the former Penn State assistant football coach said he needs more time to interview witnesses, subpoena records and hire experts. Sandusky faces 52 criminal charges that he sexually abused 10 boys over a 15-year period, allegations he denies. Two weeks ago, Judge John Cleland tentatively scheduled jury selection to start on May 14 in the Centre County Courthouse in Bellefonte.

Opening statements are set for Friday in the trial of former Rutgers University freshman Dharun Ravi, who is charged with using a laptop webcam to secretly view his college roommate in a sexual encounter with another man. Jury selection in the high-profile case was completed Thursday in Middlesex County Superior Court in New Brunswick. The trial is expected to last up to four weeks. Ravi's roommate, Tyler Clementi, 18, committed suicide by jumping off the George Washington Bridge on Sept.

TYPICALLY, it does not take trial attorneys a week to read the questionnaires from prospective jurors before ever interviewing those people. But that's going on this week in the largest courtroom at the Criminal Justice Center, as attorneys and Common Pleas Judge M. Teresa Sarmina lay the groundwork to impanel a jury in the trial of three Philadelphia Catholic priests accused of raping and endangering altar boys beginning in the 1990s. Sarmina has said that the jury-selection process could take a month.

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. - Jury selection is expected to wrap up Thursday in the trial of Dharun Ravi, the former Rutgers University student charged with using his computer webcam to secretly view his dormitory roommate in a sexual encounter with another man. More than a dozen potential jurors were questioned Wednesday as Superior Court Judge Glenn Berman, prosecutors, and defense attorneys worked to select a panel of 16, including four alternates, to...

COURTS Abuse trial delayed Jury selection has been delayed at least a day in the landmark priest-sex-abuse trial of Monsignor William Lynn in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court. Lynn, 61, is the first U.S. church official charged with keeping accused priests in ministry. Lynn is scheduled for trial with the Rev. James Brennan and former priest Edward Avery. They both are charged with rape. Lynn was in court with his lawyers yesterday, when the court delayed the start of jury selection without explanation.

William Brennan, a defense lawyer in the child-endangerment and sex-abuse trial of three Archdiocese of Philadelphia priests, had scanned only a few juror questionnaires Wednesday when he found one that showed why it might take weeks to seat an impartial panel. "As a Catholic," the prospective juror, a man, wrote, "I am disgusted by these allegations. " And that man was one of the people who made the first cut. Brennan represents the Rev. James J. Brennan, one of two former parish priests accused of sexually abusing a boy in the 1990s.

Around 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, Common Pleas Court Judge M. Teresa Sarmina took the bench in her fifth-floor courtroom in Philadelphia's Criminal Justice Center. A week had passed since defense lawyers in the child sex-abuse and endangerment case of three priests had launched their latest legal broadside, saying an offhand comment from the judge had showed bias against the Catholic Church. They wanted her to withdraw from the case. It was Sarmina's turn to respond. In her hands was a tautly written, six-page ruling, which she read aloud.

Jury selection has begun in the trial of former Rutgers University student Dharun Ravi, who is accused of using a webcam to spy on his roommate's intimate encounter with another man. The case gained widespread attention after the roommate, Tyler Clementi, committed suicide in September 2010, days after the intimate encounter. Ravi faces 15 charges, including invasion of privacy and hindering prosecution. The most serious charge is bias intimidation, a hate crime punishable by 10 years in prison.