He'll be a senior at Penn State in the fall. He works part-time in the school's athletic facilities. And Tuesday he reported to jury duty wearing a Penn State archery shirt, flashing a Nittany Lion for all to see, even though he knew he might be selected for the Jerry Sandusky sexual molestation trial that has rocked his school to its core.

View photos

He is now known as Juror No. 7, one of nine people (five men, four women) seated Tuesday for the highly anticipated trial of Sandusky, the former Penn State defensive coordinator facing 52 counts for sexual abusing 10 boys over a 15-year period.

Seven more jurors (alternates included) are needed. Considering the brisk pace of the selection process that will continue Wednesday, the trial should begin as scheduled Monday at 9 a.m.

Juror No. 7 was not alone in deciding to wear Penn State gear. About a half dozen others among the 220 potential jurors that descended on little Bellefonte, Pa., sported Nittany Lions shirts and Nittany Lions logos.

They were Nittany Lions walking right into a courthouse that was seeking impartial jurists to determine a case that, while not directly involving Penn State football, is, like everything else among the rolling rural hills of Centre County, forever intertwined with the powerhouse program.

The logos, while head-turning, hardly mattered. It would've been more surprising if no one wore Penn State gear. That's how prevalent the school and the team are in a county of just 154,000 people.

While most refrained from wearing their Penn State allegiances on their sleeve, there's no breaking the ties.

[Related: Several prospective jurors arrive at court wearing Penn State gear]

That Juror No. 7 was seated says it all. He's not just a Penn State student and employee. He also has a cousin who played football at the school, although after Sandusky retired as a coach. And he acknowledged he'd read a great deal about the case and had opinions. He stated that he could put biases aside, and that was enough to earn a spot deciding Sandusky's fate.

He was just one of many school ties. Juror 8 is a retired Penn State professor. Juror 5 is a graduate of the school. Juror 2 is the 24-year-old son of a university employee.

Then there is Juror 3, a woman married to a physician that had worked with the father of Mike McQueary, a former Penn State assistant and potential key witness. She and her husband have held Penn State football season tickets for 24 years.

Sandusky's attorney, Joe Amendola, requested she be struck from consideration due to her familiarity with the McQuearys, according to a report, but Judge John Cleland rejected the motion.

"We're in Centre County," Cleland said. "We're in rural Pennsylvania. There are these (connections) that cannot be avoided."

Amendola appeared set to use one of his eight peremptory challenges. Then Sandusky stopped his lawyer.

"I think she would be fair," Sandusky said.

And so despite those red flags, Juror No. 3 is in.









Having nine jurors seated from an initial batch of just 40 on the first day doused concerns that selecting a jury from this small community would be impossible.

Cleland had granted the defense's pretrial argument that a local jury pool be sought. If fair minds couldn't be found, however, the judge reserved the right to bring in citizens from other parts of the state where the ties to the school and the team aren't so prevalent.

Story continues