(Image source: WTXF)

BY MALLORY PERRYMAN

ANCHOR LAUREN GORES

It’s a legal decision that shocked the media--

“The shocking move by Jerry Sandusky...”

“In a shocking move the accused child molester waived his hearing.”

“Let me just tell you why this is a very shocking move.”

“So right now you’ve got a lot of people with surprised looks on their face. No kidding."

“This was indeed a shock. The hearing began at 8:30 and at approximately 8:31, it was all over.”

Former Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky’s waives his right to a preliminary hearing-- leaving analysts to wonder-- what’s his defense up to?

WTXF sheds some light on the shock factor.

“This was going to be an important evidence-gathering day for the lawyer, for Sandusky's lawyer, to understand who he he was dealing with and what their stories are going to be. So, to waive it now after he has already done all of the awful things like having to face the throng of media, wasted the resources by having a gazillion police officers out there and court's time preparing for this, now to do it, it is just shocking.”

So what’s going on?

One theory making the media rounds-- that Sandusky is prepping for a plea deal.

The defense and the prosecution deny that rumor-- and a writer for SB Nation can see why. 

“...in a way, [that] makes sense – it’s hard to imagine Sandusky being offered a plea that isn’t, functionally, the rest of his life in prison, so there isn’t much incentive for him to take one unless the trial gets too ugly for him.”

No plea deal-- but Sandusky’s attorney Joe Amendola tells Fox News-- his client did get a few other things in exchange for waiving the hearing.

Joe Amendola (Sandusy’s attorney): “Which would include no further request for increase in bail. Expedited discovery so we can start analyzing the information the commonwealth has in which we have not had access to. And the expectation that this case will move forward in a more orderly way.”

Finally-- an analyst for In Session suggests-- the main reason Sandusky’s defense team waived the hearing is that Amendola couldn’t question the accusers the way he wanted to.

“But it seems that this preliminary hearing would have been redundant. The grand jury investigation presented much of what was going to be presented at the preliminary hearing except that this time the defense would get to see it. However, according to Joe Amendola, he could not have challenged the credibility of the accusers on the stand at this stage...”

Sandusky tells reporters he will quote “fight for four quarters”. The Wall Street Journal reports-- the case is now headed for trial, with Amendola hoping to get it on the docket for summer 2012.