(CNN) — Jury selection in the trial of Jerry Sandusky, the former Penn State assistant football coach charged with child rape, is scheduled to start Tuesday in Pennsylvania.
A judge, last week, denied his attorneys’ latest bid for a delay, allowing the case to move forward.
Sandusky, 68, has been under house arrest since being charged with sexually abusing 10 young boys over a 14-year period. Prosecutors allege he met some of his accusers through Second Mile, a charity he created for underprivileged children.
He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The allegations against Sandusky led to the firing of Penn State’s iconic head football coach Joe Paterno only months before he died of complications from lung cancer.
Several of the people prosecutors accuse Sandusky of abusing have asked a judge to protect their identities at trial, including one known simply as Victim 4.
His attorney, Ben Andreozzi, believes his client — now 28 — is the strongest witness for the prosecution and will be called to testify first.
He said he expects the defense to attack his client on the basis of a meeting he had with Sandusky in the years following the alleged abuse.
“My client couldn’t break free,” said the attorney, describing the relationship between Victim 4 and Sandusky as “complex.”
Mike McQueary, a former graduate student considered to be another key witness in the Sandusky case, has testified that he alerted head coach Paterno in 2002 that he’d seen what appeared to be Sandusky sexually assaulting a boy, an allegation authorities didn’t learn of until years later.
But prosecutors said later that the incident took place about a year earlier than what was originally alleged, causing defense attorneys for two former Penn State officials to argue that one of the charges should now be dropped.
Tim Curley, Penn State’s former athletic director, and Gary Schultz, a former university vice president who oversaw campus police, have been charged with perjury and failing to report the alleged sexual assault of a child. Both of them have pleaded not guilty, and their attorneys have said that prosecutors “charged this case before it knew the facts.”
After news of the scandal broke last year, the New York Times published an extensive interview in which Sandusky attempted to clarify his relationships with young people.
“If I say, ‘No, I’m not attracted to young boys,’ that’s not the truth,” he said, according to the story. “Because I’m attracted to young people — boys, girls — I …”
His lawyer, who was present at the interview, spoke up at that point to note that Sandusky is “not sexually” attracted to them.
“Right. I enjoy — that’s what I was trying to say — I enjoy spending time with young people. I enjoy spending time with people,” Sandusky continued. “I mean my two favorite groups are the elderly and the young.”
