Curley and Shultz will walk

… Shocking allegations by Cohen

Prediction:  The criminal charges against former Athletic Director  Tim Curley and former VP Gary Shultz in the Jerry Sandusky scandal at Penn State are going to be tossed out because of serious legal problems about their misrepresentation by Cynthia Baldwin, the former general counsel for Penn State. 

Curley, Shultz, and former president Graham Spanier had charges of obstruction of justice, endangering the welfare of children and conspiracy continued to court today after a hearing in front of a district magistrate in Harrisburg. That was not a surprise. 

However, former Pa. assistant attorney general Walter Cohen, who was covering the trial for PennLive in Harrisburg, made some blunt and perhaps shocking statements about the tenuousness of the prosecution's case against them, all because of Baldwin. 

Cohen said that the "heavy lifting" for the prosecution will begin now with pretrial hearings. "At that point, it is going to be a real burden on the prosecution to establish that Cynthia Baldwin, first of all, was not responsible for the perjury charges (against Curley and Shultz) by being an ineffective lawyer in the grand jury room … she said that she was not there representing any of the three defendants, which made it illegal for her to be there."

Baldwin should never have been permitted into the grand jury proceedings for either Curley's or Shultz's testimony. She told the grand jury judge, Senior Judge Barry Feudale, who was removed last week by the Pa. Supreme Court after a request from new Attorney General Kathleen Kane,  that she was representing Shultz and Curley when she was actually representing just Penn State. 

Cohen said that Baldwin may have also been guilty of incompetence, although couching it in much milder language. "With the obstruction charges that they face, she was the person who received the subpoenas and carried out the process of producing documents, and if there was any obstruction, I would think that it was because of her lack of understanding of the criminal process and the fact that a subpoena is very different than a request for a production of documents in a civil case."

<http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2013/07/heavy_lifting_will_wait_until.html>

Now, Baldwin has become a state witness against all of them, including Graham Spanier, former president. 

That is shocking, but it was anticipated by many in the legal community in Happy Valley. In December, Shultz filed a writ against Baldwin that accused her of malpractice and sought monetary damages. That case will continue after this case ends.

Baldwin was a former member of the Court of Common Pleas in Allegheny County and a former member of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, appointed by former Gov. Fast Eddie Rendell. 

This is a mess that was left over from Linda Thompson, former acting Attorney General.  Kane has her hands full with that Baldwin relationship in a case that she inherited in January. 

In essence, a first or second year law student could have handled this better than Baldwin did based on what Cohen is saying.

Perjury and conspiracy are difficult enough to prove, and if the obstruction part is removed, the case may fall apart before it reaches the courtroom.

Both Shultz and Curley were shocked when Baldwin emerged as a witness against them, and their attorneys attempted to have the charges dismissed. That motion was denied until the case advanced to court. 

Now, that motion could actually result in the charges being tossed.