BELLEFONTE (KDKA) – A hearing was held Monday morning in the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse case.

Prosecutors and Sandusky’s lawyers met before a judge to discuss which, and how much information the defense can have before the trial gets underway.

Sandusky did not attend today’s hearing. His defense attorney, Joseph Amendola, told reporters that his client has been able to visit with friends and grandchildren while under house arrest.

Amendola said he is asking the judge to compel the prosecution to be more specific in offering dates and places for the alleged sex acts and that it is difficult to prepare a defense otherwise.

The prosecution has said the alleged victims have been as specific as they could be, given what they remember. The prosecutor says there’s a reason why his case has not offered more specifics.

“Victim No. 2 in the shower and Victim No. 8,” Joseph McGettigan III, prosecutor, said. “The other incidents of victimization for the most part, if not entirely, consist of a course of conduct over a period of weeks, months, years. And some of these children were very, very young at the time and there has been a significant passage of time. And again, these events are truly horrific events to which they were subjected, so you can understand both their reluctance initially to have specific recollection and then their ability to recollect and articulate.

Amendola also argued to make prosecutors go back to the accusers and ask them for more specifics about circumstances surrounding the alleged crimes.

If specific dates could not be provided, then details such as who Penn State played during a specific game or whether it was a home or an away game to help clarify dates.

“What if someone accused you of committing serious offenses and said, ‘Well gee, between May in 1997 and July 2002, you did these horrible things. But, we can’t give you specific dates or times or places.’ How would you defend against that? How could you possibly cover every day over five years and defend yourself in court?’ amendola said.

The judge has not issued a ruling on the defense’s requests at this time.

There are also some new details about the firing of the late Penn State head football coach Joe Paterno.

In a report from the Board of Trustees, the school officially said it fired Paterno specifically because of his failure to follow up on sexual abuse allegations against Sandusky.

The report also said Paterno was given the news by phone because his home was surrounded by media.

Paterno died of lung cancer in January.

RELATED LINKS:

More News on Jerry Sandusky
More Penn State News
More Reports From Harold Hayes