Sandusky Abandons State Court, Says Fair Hearing Possible Only in Federal Court

BELLEFONTE, Pa. (AP) — Jerry Sandusky formally abandoned a claim built on an accuser's recantation Tuesday, telling a Centre County judge by video from prison that he understood he was giving up the issue for good in order to move his fight for a new trial toward federal court.

The brief proceeding before Senior Judge Maureen A. Skerda replaced what had been scheduled as an evidentiary hearing on the recantation of Ryan Rittmeyer, identified at Sandusky's 2012 trial as Victim 10. Sandusky's attorneys filed a motion Sept. 3 withdrawing that claim and asking the court for a final order on the rest of his post-conviction petition so he could appeal.

Sandusky, 82, appeared remotely from the state prison at Laurel Highlands after his lawyers objected to transporting him. Audio problems delayed the start by about 10 minutes, and spectators said he was difficult to hear. Asked whether he understood he was withdrawing the claim and could not raise it again in state or federal court, he answered that he did.

Prosecutors from the state attorney general's office had sought to present rebuttal evidence from what they described as an extensive investigation of the recantation. Skerda declined, saying there was no basis to take evidence on a claim that had been withdrawn. A prosecutor then spoke for several minutes, objecting to publicity surrounding Rittmeyer and arguing that the defense should have produced podcasts and interviews in which he appeared. Defense attorney Jerry Russo objected repeatedly, saying the only issue before the court had been resolved and that the materials were not in the defense's possession and were not being used.

The attorney general's office had announced Friday that the hearing would proceed as scheduled. A spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment after Tuesday's proceeding.

Outside the courthouse, Russo told reporters that the issues his client most wants heard cannot be brought through the state proceeding and that Sandusky intends to seek relief in federal court, where he said claims that prosecutors withheld favorable evidence could be fully examined.

Sandusky, the former Penn State defensive coordinator and founder of The Second Mile charity, was convicted in June 2012 on 45 counts of sexually abusing 10 boys and sentenced to 30 to 60 years in prison. He has maintained his innocence throughout a decade of unsuccessful appeals and post-conviction petitions.

Rittmeyer testified at trial that Sandusky abused him on several occasions in 1998 and 1999. In an affidavit signed June 30, 2025, he said he had no clear memory of abuse when state police first interviewed him and that investigators repeatedly encouraged him to believe it had occurred. The attorney general's office has called the recantation "highly suspect."

Skerda had granted an evidentiary hearing on the recantation alone, denying hearings on the petition's other claims, which include allegations that prosecutors had an undisclosed financial interest in a trust established for another accuser and that evidence favorable to the defense was never turned over.

In a statement released last week, Sandusky said he had brought "fifteen serious issues" before Pennsylvania courts and that "every one was swatted down." He said that in federal court "every one of those issues can be heard together, by judges who have not already made up their minds about me."

Frank Parlato, an investigator and spokesperson for Sandusky, said the withdrawal did not mean Rittmeyer had retreated from his affidavit. "Nothing has been abandoned," Parlato said. "The only thing that changed is where."

Parlato said recantation evidence is disfavored under Pennsylvania law and was never considered the strongest part of the petition. "There are more subtle and nuanced issues — hiding evidence, coaching witnesses, suppressing evidence — that from a federal court's perspective are much more serious, because they strike at the Constitution itself," he said.

What happens next is not settled. A federal habeas petition generally requires that state remedies be exhausted first. Sandusky's lawyers must decide whether to appeal Skerda's dismissal of the trust-related claim to the Pennsylvania Superior Court, a process that could take six months to a year, or file in federal court within the next 30 to 60 days on the claims already exhausted, forgoing that issue. 

Parlato said Sandusky is "strongly" inclined toward federal court and that the decision is his to make.

Roughly two dozen reporters attended the hearing. Among the spectators was Joe Stains, a retired pastor who described himself as an advocate for Sandusky and an informal chaplain to the family. He spoke with reporters afterward about what he called weaknesses in the cases of several accusers, including one whose alleged abuse was described at trial only through a janitor's secondhand account.

Skerda is expected to issue an order dismissing the petition, which would start the clock for an appeal.