Testimony

WILMINGTON - He's an octogenarian trial lawyer with a fierce reputation, but on matters of finance, Richard A. Sprague calls himself "an ignoramus. " "I wouldn't know budgeted development costs from a hole in the wall," Sprague testified at a trial in Wilmington over the expansion of the SugarHouse Casino in Philadelphia. Sprague said he needed a financial partner when he was putting together a 2005 bid for one of Philadelphia's two casino licenses. He approached Las Vegas casino operator Steve Wynn, but those talks went nowhere.

HARRISBURG - Psychologists and doctors will for the first time be able to testify in Pennsylvania courtrooms as experts on sexual assault victims' behavior. Gov. Corbett on Tuesday signed a bill allowing such testimony in criminal trials, saying momentum for the law grew out of the publicity surrounding the child sexual-abuse case against former Pennsylvania State University assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky and the charges against Philadelphia-area Catholic priests. "If there is a positive side to what happened, this [bill]

PHILADELPHIA — A citizens group that unsuccessfully fought to prevent The Barnes Foundation 's move from its longtime suburban home is asking to have the case reopened, because the former CEO wrote that the foundation wasn't on the verge of bankruptcy when it sought to break the founder's trust. In court documents filed Monday, the Friends of the Barnes group cites a recent blog post by Kimberly Camp , former Barnes president and chief executive officer from 1998 to 2005.

U pdated: 4:15 p.m. BELLEFONTE, Pa. – More than six hours into their deliberations Friday, jurors in the child sex abuse trial of Jerry Sandusky asked a judge to re-read a portion of his instructions involving one of the more controversial elements of the case against the former Pennsylvania State University assistant football coach. Judge John M. Cleland called jurors back to the courtroom at 3:25 p.m. and instructed them once again on how to weigh testimony involving the alleged abuse of a man known in court documents as Victim 8. His identity remains unknown to prosecutors.

BELLEFONTE, Pa. — The key event in the trial of Jerry Sandusky on Wednesday was not something that happened, but something that did not: His lawyers ended their defense without calling the former Pennsylvania State University football coach to the stand, forgoing the chance for him to try to rebut the devastating testimony from eight men who graphically described how he had sexually abused them as boys. Closing arguments begin Thursday at 9 a.m. For more than two weeks, even as the jury was being picked, speculation has risen over whether Sandusky, 68, would speak in his own defense — a high-risk, potentially high-reward gambit.

When a story like the Jerry Sandusky child sexual-abuse case erupts in your own backyard, the barrage of sordid testimony day after day is almost too much, even for a hard-core reporter who has covered bad news for longer than I want to admit. As a mother, I would rather stick pins in my eyes than read about the alleged rape of children. "I can't take this," I told my husband as I cringed through the victims' horrific testimony as reported by my colleagues last week. Hubby looked me dead in my pin-poked eyes and replied, "As a parent, you'd better read it. " He's right once again.

The jury has reported for a tenth day of deliberations in the child sex-abuse trial of two Philadelphia Catholic priests. Court observers wait to see if they Philadelphia Common Pleas Court panel of seven men and five women will continue to have requests for clarifications and re-reading of testimony. On Friday, the jury heard part of the trial testimony of Msgr. William J. Lynn, the first Catholic Church official criminally charged for his supervisory role over deviate priests.

The jury in the sex-abuse trial of two Philadelphia Catholic priests ended a ninth day of deliberations Friday without a verdict — but also without any word that it was deadlocked. The Philadelphia Common Pleas Court panel of seven men and five women returned to court late in the afternoon to be read the part of the trial testimony of Msgr. William J. Lynn, the first Catholic Church official criminally charged for his supervisory role over deviate priests. The testimony — a portion of the three-day grilling of Lynn, 61, by Assistant District Attorney Patrick Blessington — appeared to go to the heart of the question that has been bedeviling the jurors for several days: Did the cleric knowingly put minors in danger of being sexually abused by allowing pedophile priests to be assigned to parishes where they would have access to children?

Keep the jurors late. Order them to do their job. Give them what they want. Those were options defense lawyers and prosecutors asked Common Pleas Court Judge M. Teresa Sarmina to consider Wednesday as jurors took a day off from deliberations in the landmark clergy-sex abuse trial. The panel of seven men and five women asked for the break because of graduations and family commitments. On Thursday, they are due to begin an eighth day deliberating child-endangerment and other charges against Msgr.

Jurors in the clergy sex-abuse trial of two Archdiocese of Philadelphia priests ended their eighth day of deliberations Thursday with a new set of questions that suggested they may be shifting their focus from one defendant to the other. Convening for the first time since Tuesday, the panel of seven men and five women asked to see evidence related to the landmark child-endangerment and conspiracy case against Msgr. William J. Lynn, the archdiocese's former secretary for clergy.