Panel to hear appeals by Sandusky and Veon

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Appeals by two of Pennsylvania's most notorious criminals are up for review by a state Superior Court panel on the same day next month.

The panel will take up the child-sexual abuse conviction of former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky and the corruption convictions of former state House Democratic leader Mike Veon in back-to-back hearings Sept. 17, Judge Jack Panella said Thursday.

The two high-profile cases will be the first of 45 civil and criminal cases the panel will consider during a two-day session at Dallas Senior High School in Luzerne County. Joining Panella on the panel are Judge Sallie Updyke Mundy and Senior Judge William Platt.

Superior Court panels typically hold 30 sessions a year — 10 each in Philadelphia, Harrisburg and Pittsburgh — but three or four of those sessions are typically moved to other locations in an effort to make the court more accessible, Panella said.

Sandusky was convicted in June 2012 of molesting 10 boys over a period of years — unleashing a scandal that took down Hall of Fame Coach Joe Paterno and prompted sanctions against Penn State's vaunted football program. Sandusky maintains his innocence as he serves a 30- to 60-year term at the state prison in Greene.

Veon, a former state representative from Beaver County, is serving at least seven years in Laurel Highlands state prison — the harshest sentence imposed on the 22 House members and staffers who were convicted or pleaded guilty in a lengthy state corruption investigation — after being convicted of similar charges in two trials.

The court session in Dallas will follow a one-hour judicial tribute to the nation's military veterans.

“If it weren't for them, we wouldn't have a free and independent judiciary,” Panella said.

CLARION, Pa. (AP) — A western Pennsylvania man will spend 8 to 16 years in prison for injecting the heroin that killed a western Pennsylvania woman before moving her body to her car to make it appear she had overdosed alone.Shawn Ryan Carr, 30, of Kittanning, was sentenced Wednesday by Clarion County Judge James Arner, who threatened to reject the plea bargain because he thought it was too lenient.Instead, Arner imposed the sentence because the victim's family wanted “to be done with this.”Nineteen-year-old Devan Knapp's mother reported her missing Jan. 13 and her body was found in her car two days later on a road outside Clarion, about 60 miles northeast of Pittsburgh.Carr had pleaded guilty to drug delivery resulting in death and other charges in July.