The decision, announced in a packed courtroom by defense attorney Joe Amendola just before the highly anticipated hearing, means that Sandusky's case will move directly to trial on more than 50 criminal counts of abuse and misconduct.
An audible gasp from the courtroom gallery followed Amendola's words, before Sandusky, dressed in a dark suit, and his attorney hurriedly left the second-floor courtroom.
Outside the court Sandusky said he still intended to wage a defense and Amendola again asserted his client's innocence. Using a popular football metaphor, the former linebacker coach said he would "stay the course, fight for four quarters"
"We are not in any way conceding guilt," defense attorney Joseph Amendola said. "In fact, Jerry is more adamant than ever than ever (in) expressing his innocence at trial."
Amendola called the decision a "tactical measure" to head off witnesses repeating the child sex-abuse allegations in court. He said the judge would not allow him to cross examine the witnesses and question them on credibility in a probable cause hearing which "really would have left us with the worst of all worlds."
Amendola said a major part of Sandusky's defense would be attacking the credibility of graduate assistant Michael McQueary, who said in grand jury testimony that he saw Sandusky molesting a 10-year-old boy in the shower. Amendola said that account is the centerpiece of the prosecution's case but since that testimony there have been a number of inconsistencies in what McQueary might have seen and reported.
"To the extent that we destroy his credibility we put everybody else's credibility on the case in question," he said.
He said the decision to waive the hearing had nothing to do with "cowardice or gamesmanship" and that the defense was not conceding guilt. Amendola said they decided late last night after meeting with prosecutors to waive the hearing but that the state "insisted" the hearing proceed in case Sandusky changed his mind.
Prosecutors were ready with 11 witnesses scheduled to testify in what was expected to be a day-long hearing. Senior Deputy Attorney General Marc Costanzo did not say how many of the 10 alleged victims were included in that number. He said there was no discussion of a plea bargain.
"Based on some of the talk being made by defense counsel over the last weeks their decision (to delay the hearing) is surprising," Costanzo said. "Based on our strength and readiness of the case I'm not surprised."
Constanzo said the move helps the prosecution in "a lot of ways" and most importantly "provides maximum protection" to the victims in this case.
"It avoids their having to testify for a second time," he said. "They will of course testify at the trial. … It will allow us" to advance the prosecution in this case "to a just conclusion.
"They have shown great strength and they were more than ready to be able to tell their story and be cross examined," Constanzo said.
Before the hearing was scheduled to start, Amendola asked for a short meeting with the judge before stepping back back and announcing Sandusky wanted to waive his right to a hearing.
In the 200-seat courtroom the judge asked Sandusky if he understood he was entitled to a preliminary hearing and he answered "yes."
Sandusky arrived in the ceremonial courtroom of Centre County's modest courthouse just before 8 a.m. He scanned the courtroom gallery before moving out of sight to a nearby ante-room. His wife Dottie and son E.J. were at his side.
Half of the courtroom seats were reserved for reporters who were allowed in in a last-minute decision Monday night to transmit dispatches during the proceedings. Outside the courthouse, television satellite trucks crowded the streets, some of which were closed to traffic to accommodate the large media presence.
Sandusky's next court date is scheduled for Jan. 11 but Amendola said Sandusky will waive that appearance. He remains under house arrest.
Attorneys for some of the victims who were set to testify in the case called Sandusky "a coward" for his abrupt waiver of a hearing in which prosecutors said many of the victims were among 11 witnesses set to testify.
"By definition any one who would abuse a child is by definition a coward," said attorney Ken Suggs, who represents the alleged victim designated by the Pennsylvania grand jury as "Victim 6."
Suggs and co-counsel Howard Janet said their client was ready to testify Tuesday about a series of alleged incidents which sparked the first investigation of misconduct involving Sandusky in 1998. Prosecutors declined filed charges in that case, despite a confrontation between the victim's mother and Sandusky in which the former coach allegedly said, "I was wrong…I wish I were dead."
"The guy said he wished he was dead," Janet said.
Attorney Slade McLaughlin, who represents the victim designated as "Victim 1," said the defense waiver suggests a "possible plea deal."
"I think you'll see this come to an end fairly quickly now," McLaughlin said. "This was their only chance to find out what kind of case the state had and they gave it up."
McLaughlin said his client was "anxious but ready" to discuss allegations of nearly four years of abuse.
"What my client wants is justice to be served and for Sandusky to spend a long time in prison," the attorney said. "There is a public outcry to get this done."
Amendola said Tuesday he believed many of the alleged victims who have come forward could be motivated by money, "by the financial gain that could come out of this by saying 'I'm a victim.'" Some of them already have civil attorneys, he said.
Sandusky's Tuesday appearance comes more than a month after a Pennsylvania grand jury issued a damning report outlining alleged abuses against eight victims during a period of 15 years.
Additional charges involving two new victims were added last week, when Sandusky was arrested and released on a $250,000 bond.
Among the new charges were allegations that Sandusky sexually assaulted a child in the basement of his home while the alleged victim screamed for help.
Sandusky is charged with more than 50 criminal counts. He has denied any wrongdoing in a case that has shaken Pennsylvania's largest university. The criminal charges prompted the ouster of President Graham Spanier and Joe Paterno, the winningest coach in the history of college football who directed the Penn State program for nearly 50 years.
Neither Spanier nor Paterno have been charged. But former athletic director Tim Curley and former senior vice president Gary Schultz face related perjury charges for allegedly providing inaccurate information to the state grand jury and failing to report allegations of child sex abuse to law enforcement authorities.
Curley and Schultz also have denied any wrongdoing.
They are scheduled to appear at a separate preliminary hearing Friday in Harrisburg.
The charges against Curley and Schultz hinge largely on the testimony of Penn State assistant football coach Michael McQueary, who told the grand jury that he witnessed Sandusky raping a child — believed to be about 10 years old — in the showers of a Penn State locker room in 2002.
According to the grand jury report, McQueary reported the incident to Curley and Schultz. The former administrators, however, denied that McQueary's account included details of child rape.
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