Prosecutor disputes Sandusky lawyer

STATE COLLEGE, Pa., Dec. 15 (UPI) -- A Pennsylvania prosecutor says the lawyer for disgraced Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky was wrong to speak of prosecution concessions.

Senior Deputy Attorney General E. Marc Costanzo disputed a suggestion from Sandusky's lawyer that prosecutors offered concessions in return for the former coach, charged with child sex abuse, waiving his right to a preliminary hearing Tuesday, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

Costanzo said Sandusky lawyer Joseph Amendola himself first brought up waiving the hearing Monday night, but didn't offer a reason, the report said.

Costanzo said the waiver suggestion from Amendola was followed by a series of phone calls and meetings in State College hotel rooms. The meetings included one with the presiding judge, he said.

But prosecutors weren't sure the waiver would actually take place, Costanzo said, until Amendola entered the Bellefonte courtroom Tuesday, the Inquirer reported.

Costanzo said at least 11 witnesses were ready to testify at the hearing. They included Mike McQueary, the former graduate assistant who told the grand jury he saw Sandusky rape a boy in a locker room shower in 2002.

But Costanzo said prosecutors never struck a bail deal with Amendola, the newspaper said.

Before Costanzo's comments, Amendola said in a nationally broadcast interview Wednesday prosecutors, not the defense, began the talks to waive the hearing.

"The commonwealth attorney said he would not request a bail increase on the current charges or any additional charges if Jerry waived his preliminary hearing," Amendola told NBC's Today. "That was a big concession, because it's very vitally important Jerry stay out of jail."

The 67-year-old former coach is under house arrest with electronic monitoring after posting $250,000 bail last week.