Pennsylvania pols asking for Chicago deposition records concerning Jerry Sandusky abuses

The Pennsylvania State Treasurer and a state senator are asking a Cook County judge to grant them access to depositions set to be given in Chicago concerning the 2012 Penn State University child sex assault scandal.

The petition for a subpoena of records was filed Tuesday in Cook County Circuit Court by Pennsylvania State Sen. Jake Corman and State Treasurer Robert M. McCord.

The depositions in question — scheduled for Dec. 5 at a law firm in the Loop — are set to be given by representatives from the Big Ten Conference and Chicago-based Mayer Brown LLP, a law firm representing the Big Ten, according to the filing.

The law firm and the Big Ten were also ordered to bring “All communications in [their] possession in any way relating to an investigation of Pennsylvania State University and/or the 2012 Consent Decree between PSU and the National Collegiate Athletic Association, including communications sent to or from the Freeh Group,” according to a document attached to the filing.

Mayer Brown’s representation of the Big Ten with regard to Pennsylvania State University, NCAA and the Freeh Report will be addressed in the deposition, according to the filing.

Following the conviction of former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky on dozens of child sex abuse charges, Penn State commissioned an “independent” investigation by the Freeh Group of how the university handling of the abuses. The investigation was headed by former FBI Director Louis Freeh.

Though Penn State was fined $60 million and was banned from post-season play for four years after the Freeh Report was released, Corman and McCord have alleged that the investigation was hardly independent.

“[T]he NCAA’s involvement with the Freeh Group was regular and substantive, and began nearly from the outset of the Freeh Group’s retention by Penn State,” Corman and McCord said in a Nov. 11 federal lawsuit filed against the NCAA and Penn State.

In 2011, former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky was indicted on more than 50 charges of child molestation, with many of the assaults on children occurring on or near university property. In June 2012, he was found guilty of 45 of 48 various sex-related charges. He was sentenced to 60 years in prison and will eligible for parole after 30.