Judge John Cleland surprised some legal observers with his decision Monday not to further delay former Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky's upcoming trial on child sex abuse charges.

But don’t expect the ruling to give the defense a ready-made appeal issue, they said.

Cleland, in a terse one-paragraph order denying a defense request for a continuance, sent the strongest signal possible that he wants prosecution and defense attorneys to be ready for the start of jury selection June 5.

Attorney General Linda Kelly and Joseph Amendola, Sandusky’s lead attorney, declined comment Monday, citing Cleland’s gag order on lawyers participating in the case.

Cleland, a senior judge from McKean County specially assigned to Centre County Court for the Sandusky case, has made it clear from the beginning that he wants this case to move expeditiously.

And even those who were most surprised by Monday’s ruling agreed that as much as they might not like it, Sandusky’s lawyers will be hard-pressed to launch a winning appellate argument on this decision alone.

They will be able to use it post-trial only if they can show that lack of time for preparation caused an error — say, a potential defense witness who was never found or a key document that was not objected to — to be made at trial.

Even then, said Bruce Antkowiak, director of the undergraduate Criminology, Law and Society Program at St. Vincent College, near Latrobe, Sandusky’s attorneys would have to successfully show that error, if reversed, could reasonably be believed to change the outcome of the case.

Reversals based on denials of continuances are rarely seen in appellate courts, Widener University School of Law professor Wesley Oliver agreed, because in most cases, “it’s really hard to say what the extra time would have gotten you.”

Still, many observers expressed some surprise that Cleland didn’t grant at least a small delay in this case, if only to shut down as many appellate issues as possible.

Sandusky, the longtime defensive coordinator for legendary Penn State football coach Joe Paterno, is accused of molesting 10 boys from 1994 to 2008. Many of the alleged abuses occurred at Penn State facilities, the state said, and two top university administrators have been charged separately with lying to a grand jury about their response to one of the cases.

Sandusky has maintained his innocence.

Some of the surprise over Cleland’s ruling owes to the fact that high-profile criminal cases are often delayed several times.

Cleland would have until at least November to start Sandusky’s trial under the state’s speedy-trial law, and some trial judges in Pennsylvania routinely grant a certain number of continuances to attorneys upon request as a matter of right.

Oliver also noted Cleland’s choice sets up a public imbalance in at least one regard: Kelly’s prosecutors have been studying the Sandusky case since March 2009, when it was first referred to then-Attorney General Tom Corbett’s office; Amendola has had about six months to work on Sandusky’s defense.

“I would have thought out of an abundance of caution, especially with the new information ... that he [Cleland] would have granted the defense a little bit more time,” Oliver said, referring to prosecutors this month resetting the date of the alleged assault on the accuser identified as Victim Two from 2002 to 2001.

But both professors were quick to add they believe Cleland has been fair in his pre-trial rulings and is within his right to make the decision he did.

Antkowiak noted that the judge has a better handle on the emerging prosecution and defense cases than anyone. Cleland seems to have reasoned that those cases are going to turn largely on issues of witness credibility.

If he’s satisfied Amendola is getting the information he needs to test that credibility in a timely fashion, and he also sees that there are not large new batches of documents or medical evidence to pore through, it becomes a matter of “what else do you need to be ready?” Antkowiak said.

“I have to believe the judge has given a careful assessment as to whether or not he can stick to the June 5 date and still have a fair trial,” he added.

Concurrent with Monday’s ruling, Cleland established schedules for briefs on pending defense motions for dismissal of charges, and scheduled a May 30 hearing to deal with any other pre-trial issues that are still unresolved.

Amendola’s motion May 9 for a delay cited his need to review and react to information still coming in, plus the likelihood that two potentially key defense witnesses — Penn State’s retired Vice President Gary Schultz and Athletic Director Tim Curley, who is on leave — will refuse to testify on grounds they could risk incriminating themselves in their own perjury trials.

He said that without a delay he was concerned he would not be able to represent Sandusky “effectively and adequately.”