For months, the criminal case against three former Penn State administrators accused of covering up abuse complaints about Jerry Sandusky has been in limbo while a judge considered their request to have the case thrown out.

Judge Barry Feudale‘s ruling Tuesday against Graham Spanier, Gary Schultz and Tim Curley could clear the way for a district judge to finally conduct the preliminary hearing that had once been scheduled for last December.

But Feudale’s 16-page opinion and order anticipates that the defendants might want to take up the same issues he rejected before a county judge or a state appeals court.

Feudale ruled he did not have jurisdiction and turned down their motions to throw out the grand jury report backing up the accusations and ruled against two other defense requests.

Feudale said he would not have granted the defendants’ request that the charges be thrown out and emphasized that the case was out of his hands once the grand jury issued its report. But the judge did provide an analysis of the defense arguments that, he said, let him to conclude their motions lacked merit.

The three are charged with perjury, obstruction, endangering the welfare of children, failure to properly report suspected abuse and conspiracy.

The defendants had sought to exclude the testimony of Penn State‘s former general counsel Cynthia Baldwin, based on her actions as she accompanied the men to grand jury appearances in Harrisburg in early 2011. The defendants argued that Baldwin’s actions violated their right to legal counsel, but Feudale said it “strains credulity to infer that they were somehow deluded or misrepresented by attorney Baldwin.”

“In hindsight, perhaps I erred in not asking follow up questions about the role of corporate counsel Baldwin,” Feudale wrote. “I regret and perhaps committed error in not asking any follow-up questions, but while I am unaware what the response would have been, I fail to discern how such would persuade me at this stage why presentments should be dismissed.”

The attorney general’s office and a spokeswoman for Curley’s legal team offered no immediate comment. Lawyers for Spanier and Schultz did not immediately return phone messages.

Sandusky, a retired Penn State assistant football coach, was convicted in June of 45 sexual abuse counts. Sandusky, 69, is serving a 30- to 60-year state prison sentence, …read more

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