Sandusky Attorney: ‘This is a Fight to the Death’

Jerry Sandusky's lawyer says he will not negotiate a plea deal in his client's child sex-abuse case.

Joseph Amendola spoke on the courthouse steps without a coat in the 35-degree weather for an hour Tuesday after his client waived his preliminary hearing. Amendola says: “There will be no plea negotiations. This is a fight to the death.”

“Jerry Sandusky maintains his innocence and we’re going to fight like hell for him," Amendola says.

Amendola calls the decision to waive the hearing a “tactical measure” that was decided last night.

Amendola says that after waiving the hearing, he got "concessions" from prosecutors, including promises that police will not “haul Jerry off in handcuffs” again and that bail will not be increased.

The decision moves Sandusky toward a trial on child sex-abuse charges. At least some of his 10 accusers had been expected to testify at Tuesday's hearing.

The attorney talked a lot about Sandusky's frame of mind.

"He’s depressed, he’s devastated. Everything he has worked for his whole life – working with kids, helping kids, has been overturned, turned upside down," Amendola says.

In his hour-long talk outside the court house, the lawyer even broached the subject of Sandusky's controversial interview with NBC's Bob Costas.

“I always felt that Jerry had to tell the public he was innocent, regardless of the awkward manner in which he did it," Sandusky says. "[Sandusky] has been described by his friends, his family as an overgrown kid…He’s playful…he’s just a very naïve guy.”

At the hearings, prosecutors must show that they have probable cause to bring the case to trial. Prosecutors in this case were expected to meet that relatively low bar, in part because the case been through a grand jury.