Jerry Sandusky pre-trial hearing postponed due to ongoing investigation

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Former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky is escorted to his car while leaving the Centre County Courthouse, on December 13, 2011 in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania. Sandusky appeared briefly at today's preliminary hearing, which was postponed pending the ongoing grand jury investigation. (Mark Wilson/AFP/Getty Images)

Jerry Sandusky's pre-trial hearing Thursday was postponed, as the judge waited for more substantial evidence to come from the ongoing grand jury investigation, CNN reported. 

Pennsylvania Superior Court Judge John Cleland said any deliberations at the pre-trial would be "premature" and that the case was still "in flux" after Sandusky's attorney called for the child sex abuse charges against his client be dropped, according to CNN. 

Sandusky, the former assistant football coach at Penn State, has been charged with 52 counts of sexual abuse involving 10 children over 15 years, dating back to 1994, USA Today reported. The allegations against Sandusky led to Penn State's head football coach Joe Paterno being fired, just months before he succumbed to complications from lung cancer and died, CNN reported.

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During the 20-minute hearing, Sandusky's defense attorney Joe Amendola withdrew his request that the attorney general's office not use secretly recorded conversations between Sandusky and two of the 10 boys he is accused of sexually abusing, the Associated Press reported. 

"We're still challenging all the charges, we're still challenging all the issues that we raised," Amendola told reporters after the pre-trial, according to the AP. 

Sandusky's lawyers submitted a 95-page motion on March 22 that argued that the allegations against their client were too vague and thus prohibited them from preparing a defense, violating his right to due process, CNN reported. The motion also said that the prosecutors had not established sufficient proof in regards to some of Sandusky's alleged victims, and that all the evidence has not been turned over to the defense. 

Attorney General Joe McGettigan said he could elaborate on the nature of the ongoing investigation, but called Thursday's hearing a "pointless escapade" by Sandusky's attorney who was "intent on raising frivolous issues" to garner increased media attention," USA Today reported. 

"I look forward to the day when the victims in this litany of perversions get their day in court to confront the man who victimized them," McGettigan told reporters after the pre-trial. 

Sandusky is being kept under house arrest until his trial, which is set to start June 5, CNN reported. 

More from GlobalPost: Jerry Sandusky: psychologist fingered suspect as 'likely pedophile' as early as 1998, report says

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/united-states/120405/jerry-sandusky-pre-trial-postponed-investigation