Jury’s ties to Penn State unveiled in Jerry Sandusky trial

Opening statements in the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse trial are expected to start next week.
And several of the jurors  who will hear this case  are closely connected to Penn State University.  
Jerry Sandusky will enter a courtroom where nearly all the jurors know who he is and what he’s accused: raping or repeatedly molesting 10 boys, in some cases, for years.
five men and seven women including a mother who works at Wal-mart and a retired school bus driver.
“What is this going to be like for them?”
“Each juror is going to be listening and watching, really closely, each and every man that gets on the witness stand and tells his story. “
Half of the jurors are connected to Penn State including a senior who works in the athletic department, a long-time professor, and someone who works in the engineering department.
A seventh juror’s husband is a medical colleague of Mike McQueary’s father.  McQueary is a key prosecution witness, he allegedly saw  Sandusky raping a young boy in a Penn State football lockeroom. McQueary’s father will testify too.
“As a former prosecutor and as a lawyer, it makes me uncomfortable. It’s just simply not done. When you’re choosing a jury, you try to make sure that there are no ties.”
The first prosecution witness is expected to be accuser number 4, a 28 year old who says when he was a child,  Sandusky raped him during trips to bowl games in Texas and Florida.  
He also appears in Sandusky’s autobiography “Touched.”
Jurors also are expected to consider notes one source described as “love letters” that Sandusky allegedly wrote to that witness.
“Regardless of spin, prosecution spin or defense spin, about those letters, they will speak for themselves.”
Jurors will be the first to hear Sandusky’s accusers openly testify. A judge ruled they can no longer remain anonymous.  .  
That ruling has outraged victim advocates worried it will discourage other child sexual assault victims from coming forward.
“We know that the majority of sexual assault victims don’t ever tell anybody. they don’t report it to family, friends, let alone to the police.” 
The jurors won’t be sequestered. The judge says he trusts them to avoid the media and anyone else who may approach them.