The Daily Collegian
Clark-Sestak pushes
for students’ votes
By Katrina Wehr
COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITER
Though she said she prefers to
spend her nights at home quietly
reading a good book, Susan
Clark-Sestak spent Wednesday
night in the HUB talking with stu
dents about the importance of
voting this November.
“It sounds trite,” she said, “but
every vote does matter.”
Clark-Sestak began her talk
with the news that her husband,
Senate candidate Rep. Joe
Sestak, D-Pa., is currently trail
ing his Republican opponent, for
mer congressman Pat Toomey, in
the polls.
She said that while Toomey is a
good person and it’s nice that vot
ers have two good candidates to
choose from, she can’t imagine
why citizens would want to give
power back to the Republican
party so soon.
It took eight years for the Bush
administration to get the nation
into the state it was in, Clark-
Sestak said, adding that it will
take a little longer than 18
months for the current adminis
tration to sort things out.
Clark-Sestak said the thing she
found most troubling about
Pathologist:
By Casey McDermott
COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITER
Dr. Harry Kamerow the
pathologist who conducted an
autopsy on Maggie Davis follow
ing her death in
March 2009
told a jury
Wednesday that
physical evi
dence found on
the former Penn
State Altoona
student’s body
shows that she Allen
suffered multiple
blows to her head in the moments
leading up to her death.,
Those injuries, he said, could
have made it easier for someone
to strangle her.
Kamerow was one of several
specialists brought to the stand
Wednesday who had examined
Davis’ body as the prosecution
team wrapped up its case
Wednesday against Sean L. Allen,
all you-can-eat-stir fry!
and iust because it’s all you can
eat, doesn’t mean you
SHOULD...
V? 131 w - beaver ave
Cafe 210 Wesl
Toomey is his belief in cutting
taxes for corporations in the hope
they’ll invest that money.
“We’ve already discovered the
trickle-down theory doesn’t
work,” she said. “Joe believes in
trying to find solutions to prob
lems.”
One solution that students will
be particularly interested in is
her husband’s focus on trying to
make college more affordable,
Clark-Sestak said. She empha
sized the necessity of well-edu
cated students to stay competi
tive in the global market when
they become the nation’s next
leaders.
She added that students won’t
be able to afford college if Toomey
is elected and his policies are put
into action.
Clark-Sestak also talked about
her husband’s passion for pedi
atric cancer research. Their
daughter was diagnosed with a
form of brain cancer at four years
old, she said, and was only given
three to nine months to live. After
three surgeries, chemotherapy
and radiation treatment, she was
able to overcome the disease,
Clark-Sestak said.
Now her husband leads a com
mittee that works to get more
Davis suffered multiple blows
of Hollidaysburg, Pa.,who is
charged with criminal homicide
in connection with Davis’ death
on March 3,2009.
Her body was found in the
trunk of her blue Pontiac Grand
Am two days after she was
reported missing and one day
after her car was located in a
parking lot about 100 yards from
Allen’s 102 A Fairway Lower
Brush apartment in
Hollidaysburg.
For nearly three hours,
Kamerow described the physical
evidence he found on Davis,
which included a laceration and
other injuries at multiple sites of
her head, a broken bone in her
upper neck and other abrasions
on her knee, hands, thighs and
lower back.
The characteristics of the
injuries on Davis’ head show that
the Maglite flashlight, which con
tained traces of Davis’ blood and
was found inside Allen’s bedroom
after her death, could have
Ho#fj
Mwi-Thur 11 AM-9 PM
Fri II AM - 9:30 PM
Saf 12 PH - 9:30 PM
Sun 12 PM - 9 PM
:reate
UR OWN
Bl4-238-0600
o THE6REENBOWL.COM
LOCAL
Susan Clark-Sestak speaks to a crowd at the HUB-Robeson Center
Wednesday night as part of her husband’s senatorial campaign.
money toward pediatric cancer
research, she said.
Clark-Sestak finished her
speech by calling on the group to
help make others aware of the
importance of going to vote.
“This election can be a defining
moment as for how the next few
years wifi go in the House,” she
said. “We have to get every vote
we can.”
Hannah Kendig (sophomore
political science and economics),
treasurer for the Penn State
College Democrats, who spon
sored Clark-Sestak’s talk, said
caused the head trauma, he said.
But a fingerprint specialist who
testified said he was not able to
connect the traces found on the
flashlight to Allen. And in some
cases the prints were not clear
enough to determine to whom
they belonged, he said.
A stone was also found embed
ded in Davis’ back, Kamerow
said. This, he said, combined with
the vertical pattern of the abra
sions that also appeared there,
point to the possibility she was
dragged across the ground.
Kamerow also pointed to phys
ical evidence that indicated Davis
suffered abrasions as a result of a
sexual event that occurred within
a few minutes of or after the time
of her death.
“If you put the evidence togeth
er then you can interpret this
event differently,” he said. “And it
obviously raises the issue of
assault mixed with sex.”
All three specialists who testi
fied Wednesday Kamerow,
she appreciated how Clark-
Sestak stressed what her hus
band was tiying to do for college
students.
Gregory Reed, a regional
intern for the Sestak For Senate
campaign, also emphasized that
getting the message out to stu
dents was key.
“It’s clear to me that Sestak is
the candidate for students,” Reed
(senior-international politics)
said. “Mobilizing students is
paramount to the campaign.”
To e-mail reporter: kmws34o@psu.edu ,
Blair County Coroner Patricia
Ross and Centre County Chief
Deputy Coroner Judy Pleskonko,
who also serves a sexual assault
nurse examiner said they had
never before seen anything to the
degree of the physical damage
found on Davis’ body during their
examinations.
Kamerow said he ran a toxicol
ogy test of Davis’ body and there
were no signs of marijuana or
other drugs in her system.
Defense attorneys Steven P
Passarello and Thomas Hooper
who earlier in the week con
ceded to the jury that Allen is
responsible for Davis’ death but
said their client should not be
sentenced for charges of first
degree murder will begin
presenting the defense’s case
today.
The trial is scheduled to contin
ue in Blair County through
Friday.
To e-mail reporter: cmms773@psu.edu
Thursday, Sept. 23,2010 I
AUSTIN SCOTT CASE
Defendant
in lawsuit
requests
dismissal
By Casey McDermott
COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITER
In June, a judge denied former
Penn State running back Austin
Scott’s request to put his civil suit
on hold so he
could accept an
offer to play foot-
ball in Germany,
according to court
documents.
But on Monday,
the woman who
said Scott raped
her in 2007 asked Scott
to be dismissed as
a defendant from Scott’s suit,
according to court documents.
She said she stands by her original
story, according to court docu
ments.
Charges of rape, sexual assault
and related counts were brought
against Scott as a result of the
woman’s report, but they were
dropped in 2008 after a judge said
evidence the woman had made a
previous and separate report of
rape could be used in the trial.
The woman now asking to be
removed as a defendant in Scott’s
current suit said she and the for
mer Penn State athlete did not
have consensual sexual relations,
despite the outcome of the original
case, according to court docu
ments.
In 2009 citing malicious pros
ecution, false imprisonment, civil
conspiracy, false arrest, failure to
intervene and unlawful seizure
Scott filed a civil suit against for
mer Centre County District
Attorney Michael Madeira and
Assistant District Attorney Lance
Marshall, Penn State University,
Centre County, several Penn State
Police officials and the woman
who said he raped her, according
to court documents.
At the time, Scott said the inci
dent hurt his reputation and inhib
ited his ability to earn money as a
professional athlete.
He was cut from the Penn State
football team after he was charged
in connection with the 2007 inci
dent.
To e-mail reporter: cmms773@psu.edu