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When I heard Jerry Sandusky admitted on national television that he enjoys showering with young boys, one glaring question came to mind. What kind of lawyer lets his client say something that explosive when he's facing a child sex abuse scandal? Is Joe Amendola a complete idiot? Just a lawyer who can't get a handle on his client?
The answers are no and if only. Turns out Amendola's got some skeletons in his own closet that shed new light on Sandusky's blase attitude about "horsing around" with little boys.
The Daily has uncovered court documents that indicate Joe Amendola slept with Mary Iavasile, a 16-year-old girl when he was 49 years old and serving as her attorney in an emancipation case. Iavasile's mother says her daughter got pregnant with Amendola's baby and gave birth before her 18th birthday, later marrying the attorney with whom she would go on to have a second child. The two are divorced now, but that doesn't get rid of the creep factor!
Let's get this straight. Evidence that seems pretty rock solid points to a grown man in a professional job in which he would have contact with a young girl seducing said girl and getting her pregnant. It doesn't seem to be illegal -- the age of consent in the state of Pennsylvania is 16 -- but immoral? You bet!
She was a kid! He was her lawyer! Attorney/client privilege is supposed to refer to someone having the freedom to talk to their lawyer without said lawyer being forced to testify. It doesn't mean the lawyer gets to take privileges with his young, impressionable client. Just the idea of a 49-year-old man sleeping with a 16-year-old girl makes my skin crawl. That he was in a professional relationship with her and as such had a sort of power over her doubles the creep factor.
Just because it was legal doesn't mean it was right.
Amendola's quasi-scandal certainly puts Sandusky's interview at a time most lawyers would be telling their clients to shut their traps and stay out of the spotlight in perspective -- albeit a warped one. Joe Amendola is representing a man accused of abusing his power as a trusted football coach, and here he abused his power as a trusted attorney! No wonder he thinks his client's statements are fine!
Does Amendola's past make you uncomfortable?
Image via MSNBC
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