Senior Judge John M. Cleland has loosened his rules for Tuesday’s preliminary hearing for Jerry Sandusky. The amendment states that portions of the order “are amended to permit reporters credentialed under the said order to email, to send text messages, and to ‘tweet’ from laptop computers and handheld devices during the preliminary hearing,” according to a court order read to me by Teri L. Henning, president of the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association. His order originally said reporters could only use laptops to take notes and that phones must be off, which meant that they couldn’t cover the event live. The rules only apply to the preliminary hearing, and Cleland says that no one can record it. ABC, the Associated Press, CNN, ESPN, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal had petitioned him to reconsider the rules.
The Penn Stater reports on the “media circus” anticipated Tuesday in the town of Bellefonte, Pa., where the hearing will take place:
The borough of Bellefonte is expecting a swarm of news media trucks, cameras, and personnel tomorrow. Police have ordered the streets around the courthouse to be closed starting at 6:00 this evening and continuing all day Tuesday until midnight.
