Ann Curry Asks Joe Amendola, Jerry Sandusky's Lawyer, 'Are You Competent?' (VIDEO)

"Today" anchor Ann Curry had some tough questions prepared for Joe Amendola on Wednesday, the lawyer of Penn State's former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, who waived his client's right to a preliminary hearing.

Jerry Sandusky has been charged with over 50 counts of serial sexual abuse against minors. Sandusky's preliminary hearing was going to include the testimonies of 11 victims and witnesses.

Curry asked Amendola if he was "competent to defend Jerry Sandusky," based on the fact that he waived the preliminary hearing on Tuesday, and permitted his client to speak to the media on more than one occasion.

Curry also questioned if Amendola had "done his homework," since he said he waived the right to the preliminary hearing because he was not permitted to question the accusers' credibility, which was a standard proceeding of such hearings. "How could you not have known this until the 11th hour?" Curry asked.

Amendola seemed surprised by Curry's questions and told her that yesterday's preliminary hearing would have only provided the media with "a feeding frenzy." "We had very little to gain," he said.

WATCH:

The major players in the Penn State scandal:

Comments

[James MD]

07:58 PM on 02/13/2012

Jerry Sandusky does not plan on ever standing trial. He now can spend time with his grandchildren, as he will drag this out as long as possible and will continue to claim innocent and say he is the victim. We should hear more from him proclaiming his innocents as time passes. They will find him dead before he goes to trial, of natural causes of course and will never be convicted of these crimes. Penn State will welcome his death with open arms. His Lawyers actions and Jerry Sandusky actions all make sense to me.

[James MD]

07:47 PM on 02/13/2012

The way this lawyer and his client are handling this, especially Jerry being so arrogant, claiming he has been done wrong in so many ways, I expect more of these Sandusky speeches. He needs to see his Grandchildren, its clear to me, that Jerry Sandusky has no plans of ever facing a Judge or his victims. He will drag his freedom out as long as possible and now being allowed to spend his last days with his grandchildren, before he will be found dead, of reported natural causes, before he ever stands trial and he will never be convicted and Penn State will welcome his planned death with open arms. So the Lawyers actions are in accordance with some one, who has no plans to face a Judge. Curry asked Amendola if he was "competent to defend Jerry Sandusky," based on the fact that he waived the preliminary hearing on Tuesday, and permitted his client to speak to the media on more than one occasion.

[LeftRightCenter]

08:41 PM on 12/28/2011

aren't ALL questions tuff 4 ann curry?

[fmmedway]

12:16 PM on 12/22/2011

I don't know what legal expert (?) feed Ann Curry the questions she asked Amendola about waiving the preliminary hearing, but in Pennsylvania credibility is never an issue at a preliminary hearing. It doesn't matter how outrageous the testimony of a victim/witness is, if their testimony establishes that a crime was committed and that it's more likely than not that the defendant might have committed the crime, the judge has no alternative but to bind the case over for trial. In this case, Amendola did the right thing for all the right reasons. The only reason our terminally uniformed media is making an issue out of this is becasue their "media feeding frenzy," that would've followed the preliminary hearing, was denied them. Too bad, media types. Amendola won and you lost.

[Npn Npn]

12:15 AM on 12/17/2011

Maybe this guy after seeing the evidence just really believes Sandusky is guilty and is having a hard time coming up with anything.

[blindeddie]

10:37 PM on 12/16/2011

Sandusky can soon show all the kids how to dance with fellow inmates in prison.

[Stuart Klugler]

06:32 PM on 12/16/2011

His lawyer said Sandusky was showing 12-14 years old how to take a shower. Gee, we're all new
to this planet. Maybe he will show them how to take a bath.

[Linds West]

07:42 AM on 12/17/2011

Flagged by accident. Thumb slipped on my tablet.

[Nerdiac]

05:07 PM on 12/16/2011

I can only hope this guy is planning on purposefully botching this defense. It's a fact that this creature is pure evil, no one in their right mind could defend him.

[Rehbock]

11:36 AM on 12/16/2011

The lawyer is more competent to understand the purposes and tactics of preliminary hearings than Ms. Curry.
A prelim hearing allows challenge of the sufficiency of evidence. The judge does not weigh evidence. Whatever the witnesses actually said "journalists" misinform the nation over and over just as Ms. Curry has. The public not distinguishing between weighing evidence and sufficiency would take the outcome to be a decision that reinforces guilt.
The same already happened with the grand jury report. When I last commented to point out that no statementshave been tested and no witnesses cross examined, many comments responded calling me names, telling me how the grand jury report was proof of guilt, etc.
I have practiced law for 35 years. My dad was a lawyer for more than 75 years and my senior partner for 25 of my years of practice. We all can think what we want about the man's guilt and can take counsel on that from the angry mob. I prefer not to decide facts and guilt or be told how one should practice law from TV personalities.

[lightbulb10]

01:53 PM on 12/19/2011

That's an interesting distinction, regarding the evidence. Thx.

[toyprius]

07:19 PM on 12/15/2011

Let me get this straight 50 young men or boys accused this man of sexual assault and he's not in jail. The phrase from the bottom is bad what's wrong with this guy. I wouldn't want he for a traffic ticket. Where there's smoke there's fire.

[rgram1673]

05:01 PM on 12/15/2011

When Joe Amendola denied the press their feeding frenzy at the pre-lim, he should have expected them to be angry! What country does he live in?

[lightbulb10]

01:53 PM on 12/19/2011

Sounds like she's giving him a passive-aggressive lashing then?

[Brenda Nelson Mays]

04:46 PM on 12/15/2011

Way to stick it to him, Ann

[Tom Hendricks]

03:46 PM on 12/15/2011

There's a bigger issue here - this is media on the scandal of the 1% instead of issues of the 99%. I think a better media would cover the 99%, and leave the rest in a police report section.

[Greg Holden 123]

01:49 PM on 12/15/2011

So the interview seemed like a total bone head call, but lets open our minds up a minute and think. Being a lawyer is not about proving the truth and showing justice, it's about taking advantage of the best strategy. So lets discuss this as a strategy.

So you have a client. He is guilty. He is guilty of things that everyone and their dog finds to be disgusting and he seems caught very red handed. So your first thought is "how do I win". Well that is first going to start with the jury. They are who you are going to spin your lies to. And we all know that when it comes to horrendous crimes (eg. Casey Anthony, OJ, etc) it is not about how believable the acts are to average intelligent people because the people on the juries are obviously far more easily manipulated than your average person.

So you don't want an intelligent well informed jury. You want only the portion of the population who are uninformed and/or generally less intelligent. So how do you get those people. Here's how. Put your client on several national broadcasts to where anyone with a TV can see his guilt so much that they judge him absolutely before they ever walk into court. So because of that fact, they can't serve as a jury member. So who's left? Exactly the people that this lawyer wants. People living under rocks.

[Jane Walck]

11:41 AM on 12/16/2011

Very well put....good to read something from an intelligent person.

[lightbulb10]

01:55 PM on 12/19/2011

Yikes.

I don't think he'll walk.

[akdennis]

12:58 PM on 12/15/2011

What they are doing is setting it up so Sandusky can request a new trial on the grounds of ineffective counsel when he loses the first one. Providing he loses the first one.

[MJinCanada]

01:50 PM on 12/15/2011

I think that's likely too.

The other possibility is that bottom feeders hang out together, so that middle class predators inevitably have incompetent lawyers as friends.