Jerry Sandusky trial's first witness confidently testifies about repeated sexual molestation

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http://sports.yahoo.com/news/ncaaf--jerry-sandusky-molestation-trial-victim-1-credible-joe-amendola-.html

 

BELLEFONTE, Pa. – It was late on a long, hot day inside the Centre County Courthouse, and Jerry Sandusky's defense against sexual molestation charges already had been rocked by powerful, personal testimony of an indomitable witness.

As the first day of the trial grinded through an afternoon of testimony, Sandusky's attorney Joe Amendola kept grasping at straws, kept seeking angles to prop up his client as a kind-hearted guy who was the victim of overaggressive police and money-hungry accusers.

So he tried to take the words of the trial's first witness, known as Victim No. 4 in court documents, and spin them around. Earlier Monday, the witness, who was a weak 13-year-old boy when he met Sandusky but is now a no-nonsense 28-year-old man, had said the former Penn State defensive coordinator treated him "like a son."

Victim No. 4 just shook his head and dismissed the suggestion that anything positive could be gleaned from the description.

"He treated me like a son in front of other people," the witness said, sternly, with an air of scolding toward the defense attorney.

"Aside from that, he treated me like his girlfriend."

As gasps were audibly heard in the courtroom for a line straight off a movie script, Amendola paused, shuffled his notes and kept fumbling as the witness maintained his steely posture.

Unless the defense has a plan to later recall the witness and catch him in multiple lies, there were almost no positives to the day for Sandusky. It was a bludgeoning, as if the witness had been waiting 15 years to rain down these stories on his alleged perpetrator and wasn't going to miss a single opportunity to go for the throat.

[Related: Dan Wetzel: Jerry Sandusky to testify at his child sexual molestation trial]

The witness vividly detailed what he estimated were at least 40 acts of inappropriate sexual contact in the Penn State football locker room showers alone – games of "soap battles" and wrestling matches turning into repeated attempts at oral and anal sex.

Amendola didn't even attempt to counter those accusations, which were equal parts powerful and painful to hear.

Sandusky, 68, is facing 52 counts based on using his Second Mile charity and his stature within Penn State football to sexual molest 10 children over a 15-year period. He's maintained his innocence, although even Amendola acknowledged in his opening arguments Monday morning that the state possessed "overwhelming evidence."

And that was before the jury of 12 heard from the state's first witness, clad in crew cut, white dress shirt and a dark tie. Yahoo! Sports will not name the alleged victims.

Over nearly five hours Victim No. 4 recapped how Sandusky first met him when he was a somewhat troubled teenager at a Second Mile charity picnic. When a bunch of kids went swimming in a lake, Sandusky joined them, and during a game where he'd throw the children in the air, the witness first realized something was wrong.

"[He'd] kind of [pretend] like he was having trouble getting a good grip," the witness said. "And as he was grabbing you he would brush your genitals and then throw you."

Without a positive male role model in his life, the boy clung to Sandusky, who offered attention, gifts, trips and unheard of access to Penn State football, including team locker rooms, charter flights, hotels, bowl trips and sideline passes. He was constantly around star players.

The trade off was workouts at Penn State, maybe basketball or racquetball, maybe just general exercise. No matter what worked up the sweat, it was washed off during two-person shower sessions in either the old football coaches' locker room or the team's new main shower room. Those would descend into groping, forced contact with private parts and even absurd "wrestling" matches, where the burly Sandusky would pin the 90-pound boy in any compromising position he wanted.

[Related: Neighbors of jurors in Sandusky trial don't support him, want justice]

"Combination of the oral sex or just groping me," the witness said. "Sometimes there would be no oral sex that would happen but he'd be between my thighs kissing them like I was a girl."

Time and time again he kept delivering these bombs, lines so perfect it's like he'd been spending years rehearsing for the day he might get to deliver them.

He laid Sandusky out, often staring right into the defendant's face, calling him by name and controlling Amendola on cross examination like it was actually he that was the experienced defense attorney.

He expressed repeated regret at not running from Sandusky, but noted it was because of fear, confusion and an acute understanding that he'd be mocked at school.

"It's not that simple, you just [can't] say, 'OK, I'm done.'" There was also the odd mix of being so excited about getting to be part of the Penn State program ("I was like the mascot") that he could block out the shower sessions.

"I thought, I didn't want to lose this," the witness said. "This is something good happening to me. I didn't have a dad."

He ripped Sandusky for sending him "creepy love letters" – handwritten on Penn State stationery – that Amendola tried to define as attempts by a mentor to keep a potentially wayward soul from going down the wrong path.

The witness instead noted they only started coming when he turned 16 and was strong enough to attempt to end the relationship. It was then, he said, Sandusky panicked and began sending letters and making emotional phone calls, like a heartbroken lover.

Later, when Amendola inexplicably had the witness read them in open court, Victim No. 4 used the tone of his voice to convey further condemnation at both defendant and his representation.

"I know that I have made several mistakes," the witness read Sandusky's words from one letter. "However, I hope that I will be able to say that I cared. There has been love in my heart. My wish is that you would call …"

And another: "I write because of the churning of my own stomach when you don't care. I write because I still hope that there will be meaningful time when we know each other."

Most were signed: "Jer."

Then there were "contracts" supposedly under the auspices of The Second Mile (which an administrator for the charity later testified were fake) that required the witness participate in a variety of activities with Sandusky, including more of those workouts where a trip to the shower room or sauna always followed. Amendola tried to use the documents to show Sandusky genuinely cared.

"Clearly," the witness snapped at Amendola, "that is a contract to get me to be around him more."

Amendola was a flailing mess by the end. He seemed unprepared for the cross examination, routinely getting dates and facts wrong and leading the witness into retelling the disturbing tales of abuse in the shower room. If he doesn't have a plan to catch the witness in repeated and profound lies, this made no sense.

It's difficult to tell where the defense will go from here. Seven more alleged victims are scheduled to testify. Amendola noted in opening arguments that Sandusky would defend himself, "in his own words," setting up the prospect of a wild stretch of testimony.

[Related: Sandusky juror profiles: All Caucasians, most have ties to Penn State]

On Monday, Amendola kept opening doors that blew up on him, violating a cardinal rule of cross examination, which is not to ask a question you don't know the answer to. Once, when arguing Sandusky helped with a school homework assignment, the witness said Sandusky actually wrote the entire thing, allowing him to cheat. Another time, he said Sandusky purchased two cartons of cigarettes for him when he was 15.

Then there was the time the witness bought marijuana.

"[sandusky] drove me there," the witness said.

Did Sandusky know what you bought, Amendola asked?

"I smoked it right in front of him in his car," the witness said.

The witness didn't help Penn State, either. He said four assistant coaches saw him showering with Sandusky at different times although no sexual activity occurred at that time because from the shower they could hear someone working the coaches locker room lock, giving Sandusky time to step away.

At one point, the witness said former assistant coach Tom Bradley got into the showers with Sandusky and the boy. The witness said he believed Bradley was "suspicious," and did it to assure the boy's safety, refusing to leave until Sandusky did first.

Also Monday, Penn State acknowledged an NBC report about an email exchange between top university officials regarding accusations by assistant coach Mike McQueary that Sandusky raped another victim. Former school president Graham Spanier, athletic director Tim Curley and vice president Gary Schultz decided that not alerting the police would be "humane" to Sandusky.

It's the smoking gun that critics of the university have been waiting for since this scandal broke.

As for Sandusky and Amendola, they can only hope a new dawn brings new hope. Trials aren't won or lost on the first day, but this was undoubtedly bad.

One hard-minded accuser unleashed years of buried anger and hidden emotions on their cross-examination strategy.

A kid who once cowered in front of Jerry Sandusky was all grown up Monday afternoon, strong, fearless and unafraid of telling it all on good old Jer.

 

This is devastating for the defense. Also what I believed was true about PSU's culpability looks like it maybe true.

[BengalBilly]

He is one sick f**k. I hope they lock his nasty ass up for the rest of his life.

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His life wont be long when he gets to prison.

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http://sports.yahoo.com/news/ncaaf--mike-mcqueary-jerry-sandusky-trial-testimony-sexual-molestation-2001-showers.html

 

Mike McQueary's testimony attacks Jerry Sandusky while repairing his own reputation

 

 

BELLEFONTE, Pa. – For a little over seven months Mike McQueary sat silent, trusting a legal system to let the facts play out in a case where he never has been, and never will be, accused of wrongdoing

The fallout from trying to report Jerry Sandusky of sexual molestation in 2001 has cost him his dream job as a Penn State assistant football coach, caused him to be raked over the coals in the media and have every fiber of his ethical being questioned in his hometown of State College, Pa., and

 

Tuesday, on the second floor of Centre County Courthouse, he finally spoke publicly, under oath and in front of Sandusky, the man he stumbled upon showering and, McQueary alleges, sexually assaulting a boy in the Penn State locker room late one February night over a decade ago.

It came just as stories continue to break that the state attorney general is in possession of emails between some of the men McQueary told about the incident: Penn State's president, vice president and athletic director.

According to NBC, those emails not only show McQueary was clear in his reporting of the incident (the Penn State officials originally insinuated he wasn't) but that the officials made the potentially criminal decision to not turn the information over to social services or law enforcement in an effort to be "humane" to Sandusky.

That's what McQueary was unknowingly dealing with: a bankrupt culture he should've never trusted.

[Related: Jerry Sandusky engaged in acts of oral sex, a second alleged victim testifies]

And that's what made Tuesday the time for McQueary to step out of the cloud of condemnation that's followed him since Sandusky was indicted last November for molesting 10 boys over 15 years. Sandusky maintains his innocence. His trial began here Monday.

Let's be clear on one thing: Mike McQueary could have done more that night he found Sandusky in, what McQueary calls, an "extreme sexual position" with a boy in the showers.

Could have and should have.

"Physically (I) didn't remove the young boy from the shower or go and punch Jerry out," McQueary acknowledged during his testimony, and you could all but hear the regret in his voice.

Hindsight isn't just 20/20, it can be projected onto others, as in everyone thinking that if they too were in that position, they would've acted differently.

No one knows whether they would, though. Not for sure.

 

And, it turns out McQueary did more than he was credited for when the story broke last fall. At the time he was portrayed as someone too timid or too unconcerned to do the right thing and properly report the crime.

Graham Spanier, Penn State's now fired president, claimed to a grand jury he wasn't given specific enough information about the incident to act. And Tim Curley, the athletic director, and Gary Schultz, the school vice president who oversaw the police department, expressed confusion over whether McQueary fully explained what he saw.

If Monday's report by NBC about the email exchange is accurate (a story Penn State has not refuted), then those are lies. McQueary was clear enough that the men took the allegation very seriously. They even conducted legal research into the potential case before concluding that they'd rather play nice with Sandusky.

[Related: Neighbors of jurors in Sandusky trial don't support him, want justice]

Curley and Schultz already are charged with failing to report a crime and perjury. The attorney general has said Spanier could still be charged.

If those men committed crimes, then McQueary's reputation is one of the victims.

Had they lived up to their legal and moral responsibilities and pursued Sandusky based on McQueary's allegation, then he'd have been a hero, this would have ended long ago and the parade of witnesses rolling into this courthouse to tearfully describe Sandusky molesting them as 11, 12 and 13 year-olds would be shorter or non-existent.

McQueary arrived at the court in a minivan driven by someone from the prosecutor's office. He was dressed sharply in a dark suit with a blue shirt and white collar and silver tie. He was accompanied by his wife and approached the witness stand with the intensity that made him a Penn State starting quarterback and high-level college assistant.

At one point, in the middle of McQueary's testimony, Judge John Cleland declared a 20-minute recess. The courtroom mostly cleared, but McQueary stayed in the witness box, holding the same posture, staring straight ahead, waiting intensely for his long-awaited chance to again speak.

McQueary is a key witness for the prosecution because it's almost impossible to believe he could have completely made up his allegation in 2001 only to have similar behavior later alleged against Sandusky by eight boys who are now grown men.

There was nothing to gain back then. He'd been watching the movie "Rudy" at home that Friday night, got fired up by the storyline and decided to head back to the football facility to watch some recruiting tapes. That's when he surprised Sandusky.

His testimony Tuesday was forceful, direct and clear. He talked like a coach, offering specifics, and stood strong against a mostly inane cross-examination by defense attorney Karl Rominger.

The defense essentially conceded Sandusky was in that shower, making physical contact with the boy. Rominger instead parsed words over the slightest variances in McQueary's story, obsessed over a reasonable initial misremembering of the date and harped on pointless details like whether he actually saw anal penetration or just Sandusky rubbing his naked front up against the naked back of a boy.

"Absent seeing a penis, yes, I think they were having sex," McQueary said.

McQueary appeared to be a boon to the prosecution, but he made sure to mix in his own defense.

Was he clear with Penn State head coach Joe Paterno, with whom he met the morning after the incident at Paterno's home?

"I made sure he knew it was sexual and it was wrong," McQueary said. "I did not go into gross detail of the act … I didn't feel comfortable using (certain) terms. I didn't explain those details or use those terms when talking to (Paterno) out of respect and out of my own embarrassment, quite frankly."

It was enough for Paterno to inform Curley, who more than a week later summoned McQueary to a conference room at the Bryce Jordan Center, where Curley and Schultz awaited. Schultz, McQueary said, qualified as him going to the police because Schultz oversaw the police.

"In my mind, Mr. Schultz represented the police, without a doubt," McQueary said. "I thought he was very much like a district attorney for the university."

Judging by the charges against Curley and Schultz, no less than the attorney general believes McQueary did the right thing and was detailed enough.

 

Questions persist though. When his bosses did nothing, how could McQueary stomach seeing Sandusky still hanging around the Penn State football facilities for another decade?

McQueary said he couldn't. He said the two never again had a conversation and anytime Sandusky would enter the room, McQueary would abruptly leave. It was noticeable enough to draw the attention of other football staffers.

"On the surface people saw me have negative reactions if, say, Jerry were to come in the equipment room," McQueary said. "People became suspicious, so I would say something to the effect that I saw something and I didn't want to be around him again …

"The last few years, as the rumors about Jerry Sandsuky began, I'd say, 'What the heck are we letting him in the building for?' "

Why didn't McQueary just quit?

"I would never resign from Penn State University," he said succinctly.

What about reports that McQueary continued playing in the Second Mile charity golf outing, which Sandusky apparently believes he did.

"I'd like to see proof of that," McQueary said, acknowledging he played before the incident but saying he highly doubted he participated afterward.

"I made a strong attempt to not be associated with anything Jerry was involved with," McQueary said.

As for his participation in an Easter Seals event that, it turned out Sandusky was involved with, McQueary said he didn't know until afterward that Sandusky participated.

"(It was) for Easter Seals, not the Second Mile," McQueary said. "It's been reported that there (were) kids involved with it and it benefited Second Mile. It was organized by a local police officer and it was for the Easter Seals."

McQueary was fighting for his reputation Tuesday, perhaps fighting for his career.

"Frankly, I want to be a football coach at Penn State University and I don't have that opportunity," he said. "I don't think I've done anything to not have that job."

In the strange world of college athletics, being the guy who tried to stop Sandusky only to be failed by his administrators, each of whom may face criminal charges, could have him blacklisted.

"You left an adult man and a boy in a locker room where you just saw them in a sexual position," Rominger said during the cross examination.

"Yes, sir," McQueary said.

"Didn't call the police," Rominger continued.

"Yes, that's right," McQueary said.

"And you assumed that nothing else would happen," Rominger said.

[Related: Sandusky juror profiles: All Caucasians, most have ties to Penn State]

"I was extremely frustrated and flustered, once I saw them separated it's safe to assume that I assumed it was over," McQueary explained. "I've said repeatedly I didn't do anything physically to stop it. Its been well publicized … Did I pull the boy out of there, did I physically go and assault anybody, did I remove him?"

He didn't need to answer. The regret was palpable. A big, strong former Division I football player's initial reaction wasn't to attack, but to call for the counsel of his father and a trusted older friend. He followed what they said: Trust the experienced administrators who ran the school.

It's all come back to haunt him. Mike McQueary, who for a decade did more than any other person at Penn State, any other person in Centre County, to stop Jerry Sandusky, must continue to answer for not doing more.

If his bosses had followed the law, he'd be lauded. If he'd said nothing, he'd be as anonymous as anyone else that turned a blind eye.

Instead he was forced to explain himself on a witness stand Tuesday.

Afterward, he looked at least a little relieved. He piled back in the minivan with his wife and was whisked away from the rear of the courthouse, across High Street, onto Penn, down a long downtown hill and, with any luck, back to some semblance of his former, sensible life.

[BengalBilly]

His life wont be long when he gets to prison.

In American prison systems they separate child molestors from the general population for this very reason. Usually in a different facility

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http://articles.cnn.com/2003-08-24/us/geoghan_1_joseph-l-druce-worcester-county-district-attorney-defrocked-roman-catholic-priest?_s=PM:US

 

You should let John Geoghan know that. You will need a shovel to talk to him.

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http://sports.yahoo.com/news/ncaaf--joe-paterno-role-jerry-sandusky-coverup-grows.html

 

PSU is going to hurt.

[BengalBilly]

http://sports.yahoo....erup-grows.html

 

PSU is going to hurt.

They're hurting already. A little more won't matter.

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Wait until the victims own the school. The NCAA coming in would not shock me. More firings because of the coverup would not be shocking.

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http://sports.yahoo.com/news/ncaaf--joe-paterno-appointment-books-tim-curley-jerry-sandusky-email-.html

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http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012-07-09/victim-1-sandusky-witness/56278226/1

 

 

 

The torturous, winding path of Sandusky's 'Victim 1'

 

LOCK HAVEN, Pa. – He never knew his father.

 

And he couldn't begin to describe to his mother why he no longer wanted anything more to do with Jerry Sandusky, who had eagerly sought to become a part of the child's life, disguised as a generous father figure.

The teenager's horrific account of Sandusky's abuse, which spanned nearly four years, could have easily been buried here for good.

After all, the former Penn State University assistant football coach was regarded in this gritty, central Pennsylvania town — as he was across the state — as a savior for a legion of troubled, fatherless kids. Even if he could overcome the shame of acknowledging that he was regularly forced to submit to a middle-age man's sexual advances or shed the fear of naming someone as prominent as Sandusky, who would believe him?

• MORE: Report slams Penn State's 'total disregard' in Sandusky case
  

And who would save him from the predator, who the victim was convinced would kill him if he dared take his story to police?

Improbably, the shaggy-haired teenager would overcome it all: the shame, the humiliation and the fear. Designated by the Pennsylvania grand jury as "Victim 1," he has long been credited with launching the successful prosecution of Sandusky, leading to last week's devastating internal review of the university. It found that Penn State's top leaders did nothing to stop the former coach's abuse.

What has not been discussed in detail before now is the victim's painful journey — from accuser to crucial prosecution witness — in one of the most damaging sports scandals in U.S. history. This account was provided to USA TODAY in interviews with the victim's psychologist, Michael Gillum, who in addition to counseling the victim, sat in on key police interviews and accompanied the victim to secret state grand jury sessions. He described his client's decision to step forward, an exhaustive schedule of police interviews and three anxious appearances before the grand jury. All of it a prelude to taking the witness stand in a packed courtroom just yards from the man who abused him.

Gillum's account is not disputed by Pennsylvania authorities and is supported by courtroom testimony, which outline similarly wrenching decisions by the other seven known victims to tell their stories in an open courtroom. It is USA TODAY's policy not to name the victims of sexual abuse. An attorney representing the victim declined to allow him to be interviewed. Gillum, who spoke with his client's knowledge, said that he hoped that by relating his experience other victims of abuse would be encouraged to report it, regardless of the consequences.

"From the first time we met," Gillum said, "he was fearful that he would be killed. He believed that Jerry Sandusky could have him killed."

There is no evidence that Sandusky made such a threat, but Gillum said the boy's extreme fear, along with anonymous threats delivered by telephone and letter after his name was linked to the investigation, set in motion elaborate plans by Clinton County, Pa., youth authorities to relocate the victim and his mother if their safety was put at risk.

"This was Jerry Sandusky we're talking about here," Gillum said of the former coach who was described by an official at the victim's school as possessing a "heart of gold," and who once patrolled the sidelines of the nearby football cathedral that is Penn State's Beaver Stadium.

Yet against all odds, unlikely Lock Haven is where the case against Sandusky began, leading to his ultimate conviction last month on 45 counts of child sexual abuse. The 68-year-old is in a central Pennsylvania jail awaiting sentencing later this summer.

A collective silence

From the time the teen found the courage to speak in 2008 until the day he took the witness stand last month, his experience underscores a complex reality that defies the megawatt attention that child sex abuse cases often draw once they become public, victims' advocates said.

To a person, each of the coach's eight known victims described in court how they attempted to block the horrific memories of abuse from their consciousness.

Some initially refused to cooperate with the criminal investigation when police approached them. One of them, now 28, told jurors in the Sandusky trial that he had wanted to "bury forever" the memories of an estimated 50 sexual encounters with Sandusky, only to come forward after police investigators "hunted me down."

High-profile child sex abuse scandals at Penn State, the Catholic Church and the Boy Scouts of America represent evidence of the pervasive nature of abuse, and the victims' accounts reveal that public attention to such cases — no matter how intense — often is not enough to overcome the paralyzing fear and humiliation that, for many, result in their collective silence.

On the same day that the Sandusky verdict was delivered, June 22, Philadelphia Monsignor William Lynn was convicted of child endangerment, the first Catholic Church official found guilty of covering up past abuses by priests under his direction.

Earlier last month, the Oregon Supreme Court approved the release of thousands of pages in files compiled by the Boy Scouts related to suspected child abusers in its ranks. The files came to light as part of a 2010 lawsuit in which a jury found that the group failed to protect children from an abusive assistant scoutmaster, Timur Dykes, dating to the 1980s.

"There is shame, fear, even guilt that they (the victims) may have allowed something like this to happen," said Curtis St. John, a spokesman for MaleSurvivor, a national advocacy group for sex abuse victims.

Himself a victim, St. John, 44, said he kept the secret of his abuse by a middle school teacher for 22 years.

"Even when sexual abuse as a child could be the root cause of all their current problems, victims always are reluctant to talk about it."

An estimated one in four women and one in six men are sexually abused before age 18, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Jolie Logan, president of Darkness to Light, another victims' advocacy group, said the reluctance to report such cases suggests the numbers of victims could be much higher.

She said cases involving assailants such as priests or prominent figures like Sandusky are particularly insidious. Typically, she said, the contact begins — as eight Sandusky victims testified — with gifts, trips and other benefits "that serve to break down victims' defenses and instincts" before the conduct veers into the physical and sexual realm.

"Because these victims are young and in the midst of physical development, this escalating behavior adds to confusion," Logan said. "They are often put in a position to think, this is what men do."

'He was shaking'

Gillum doesn't have to consult a file to recall the day when a shaken 14-year-old boy and his angry mother arrived at his nondescript Main Street office.

It was Nov. 20, 2008, and his two visitors had come straight from a disturbing meeting at a local high school where the boy told a counselor that Sandusky, then a volunteer football coach at the school, had engaged in unspecific inappropriate conduct with him.

The boy's mother had arranged the meeting with the counselor, she told the jury at Sandusky's trial, after her son began asking questions about how to access information about sexual abuse online.

Angered that school officials cautioned her against going immediately to authorities with information about such a prominent figure, the mother testified that she went directly to the Clinton County Children and Youth Social Services office.

Jennifer Sobjak, the office's assistant director, said the boy and his mother showed up with no advance notice. An initial interview with a female staffer proved uncomfortable and halting, Sobjak said, before the boy was referred to Gillum's second-floor office, partially decorated in Crayon images created by his daughter and some young clients.

"He was so anxious, he was shaking," Gillum now recalls.

In the two hours that followed, the psychologist said, the boy provided enough information — incidents of fondling, kissing and other inappropriate contact — that "indicated Jerry Sandusky as a child sex abuser."

The conclusion triggered a series of notifications and telephone calls to the Pennsylvania State Police, to Sandusky's charity for troubled children, known as The Second Mile, and to the boy's high school, where officials were notified of the claims against Sandusky.

The county report resulted in Sandusky's required separation from the school pending the resolution of the allegations.

The public backlash, Gillum said, was almost immediate and jarring. Within weeks, the boy's mother reported to state investigators that she was confronted in a Lock Haven business by an unhappy local resident who had learned that her son had been linked to the allegations triggering Sandusky's removal as a volunteer.

The child's identity spread rapidly through the community, the psychologist said, making him and his mother the target of harassment — and ultimately threats of harm — by locals upset that Sandusky had been dismissed from the school.

School officials did not respond to requests for comment.

From his initial meetings with the boy, Gillum said, it became clear, based on the victim's fear and the community's anger, that extraordinary steps were needed to protect him and his mother.

"We started putting a (witness) relocation plan together almost from the first week," Gillum said, adding that an undisclosed sum of county money was dedicated to the effort. "There was huge fear."

The search for other victims

Despite his mounting personal anxiety, the victim's role in the case quickly expanded, as monthly meetings with state police investigators were added to a weekly meeting with the psychologist.

Anthony Sassano, the attorney general's chief investigator, testified at Sandusky's trial that the teenager's account launched a wide-ranging inquiry against the former coach. He described a "daunting" effort in which fellow agents tracked leads provided by the victim to find other key witnesses.

A search of Sandusky's home, Sassano said, later turned up a trove of photographs, including several photos of the teen and other fellow victims.

Still, Gillum said, it took about three months before the victim began to speak about the most disturbing aspects of his contact with Sandusky: explicit encounters involving oral sex during extended stays at Sandusky's home in State College.

"He was very reluctant to talk about what happened to him," Gillum said. "He would say, 'I just hate talking about it; I can't stand talking about it.' "

During his first appearance before a state grand jury in the summer of 2009, Gillum said his anxious client was often "overcome by emotion," resulting in frequent breaks to help steady him.

With the approval of the supervising judge, the psychologist was allowed to accompany his client inside each of the three secret grand jury sessions in Harrisburg, which extended into 2010.

Yet the task of relating years of abuse by Sandusky never got easier, despite relaxation and visualization exercises Gillum used to help the victim cope with the unfamiliar trappings of the criminal justice system.

"There were times," Gillum said, "when he couldn't talk about what happened to him at all."

A new wave of anxiety crashed the teenager's world last November when the charges against Sandusky were made public. The announcement set off an intense national media pursuit of the victim and seven others.

(Two other victims have not been found by authorities.)

Anticipating the media onslaught, the county activated one of its three relocation plans, financing the move of mother and victim to a rental home in a local neighborhood. Gillum said the victim's mother added two "large" guard dogs to patrol the fenced-in yard, and a state police detail was placed on call in the event of trouble.

"The state police were very helpful," he said.

School, however, was a different story.

Tense encounters with fellow students after the release of the graphic grand jury report led to the victim's transfer midway through the school year.

Gillum said the move became necessary after some students, angered that the allegations would taint Penn State and the reign of legendary coach Joe Paterno, began making physical threats against his young client.

The timing of the move meant he would be preparing to graduate from a new high school and testify against the former Penn State icon at the same time.

'I'm here to tell the truth'

Days after his graduation, the victim finally appeared in a packed Bellefonte, Pa., courtroom.

His face showing the strain of an emotional legal and personal journey of nearly four years, the victim began recounting some of the worst abuse Sandusky was later convicted of inflicting. His halting testimony, often through tears, appeared to provoke an equally wrenching response from the jury of seven women and five men seated just to his right.

When lead prosecutor Joseph McGettigan finished guiding him through a catalog of horrors, the victim was forced to face Sandusky at the defense table where attorney Joe Amendola questioned whether financial motives were behind his accusations. No, he said.

"All I know is, I'm here to tell the truth about what happened to me, just like everybody else," the victim said, before stepping down and mercifully out of the spotlight.

Ten days later, while on his way to a new security job and perhaps the next chapter in a young life, the 18-year-old's cellphone rang.

The jury, his mother told him, had reached a verdict.

Gillum said the victim pulled his car to the side of the road, where, alone in the car on a late Friday night, he took in the news: guilty on 45 counts, including all charges related to Sandusky's abuse of him.

"I think he was just relieved that it was over," the psychologist said.

 

 

http://www.freep.com/usatoday/article/56284878&usatref=sportsmod?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7CSports%7Cp

 

 

'Death penalty' not only route NCAA can take on Penn State

 

Much of the talk surrounding Penn State and NCAA penalties involve its chances of receiving the "death penalty," Bylaw 19. But that might not be the most effective route for the NCAA to go.

John Infante, who writes the Bylaw Blog for AthleticScholarships.net and has worked in NCAA compliance at Division I schools, believes the NCAA should use Bylaw 3.2.5 (Loss of Active Membership) if it chooses to get involved.

Bylaw 3.2.5.1 states: "The membership of any active member failing to maintain the academic or athletics standards required for such membership or failing to meet the conditions and obligations of membership may be suspended, terminated or otherwise disciplined by a vote of two-thirds of the delegates present and voting at an annual Convention."

Essentially, this means NCAA members — not the NCAA Committee on Infractions — would decide Penn State's fate. If the NCAA were to get involved in Penn State and set a precedent with that kind of activity, it might be best to have the full membership making that call.

"As far as (Penn State) being kicked out temporarily or suspended, that would probably be pretty unlikely," Infante said.

"I think you'd have to have the NCAA go in there and find even more than they've already found. But in terms of the odds of using something like that — having the members vote rather than going to the Committee on Infractions — it's probably still unlikely but I think it's more likely.

"If they don't find any specific violations of NCAA rules and it's just institutional control or unethical conduct, I think (Bylaw 3.2.5) makes a little more sense."

If the NCAA wanted to use Bylaw 3.2.5, it would have to notify Penn State by Nov. 1. The Board of Directors then would have to decide to move forward, and the membership would vote at the national convention in January. Penalties could include terminating or suspending Penn State's membership.

If membership is terminated or suspended, the entire Penn State athletic department would be affected, Infante said. Those decisions would also affect conference revenue distribution.

Bylaw 3.2.5 has not been used in modern NCAA history (since the early 1980s), according to Infante. Since then, "everything's gone through the Committee on Infractions and the normal enforcement process," Infante said. But because of how far beyond NCAA rules the Penn State situation goes, he doesn't think the NCAA should use its normal system of punishment.

"You are kind of expanding the NCAA's power," Infante said. "And if that's going to happen, it makes more sense to me to have all the members vote to do that.

"The NCAA's whole tack is, 'This is really an unprecedented situation and it's a once in a lifetime thing to happen to a school for us to be involved like this,' then using this thing that almost never gets used sets a better precedent."

[BengalBilly]

JOE'S STATUE COMES DOWN!!!

[cravnravn]

Penn State takes down Paterno statue

 

http://news.yahoo.co...-123528628.html

Edited July 22, 2012 by cravnravn

[BengalBilly]

Penn State takes down Paterno statue

 

http://news.yahoo.co...-123528628.html

Is something messed up with the water in Pennsylvania or something? If Roethliberger isn't raping women, Sandusky is raping little boys. No wonder the Quakers keep to themselves.

[BengalBilly]

Check out a picture of a recruiting letter sent out while this whole incident was going on.

 

[cravnravn]

Is something messed up with the water in Pennsylvania or something? If Roethliberger isn't raping women, Sandusky is raping little boys. No wonder the Quakers keep to themselves.

 

 

Now you know why I got the hell out, I prefer MILF's

[BengalBilly]

 

 

Now you know why I got the hell out, I prefer MILF's

You're a dirty, nasty man, but I find those redeeming qualities.

[papasmurfbell]

Check out a picture of a recruiting letter sent out while this whole incident was going on.

 

 

And right there is your competitive advantage that the NCAA can jump on them about. They just lowered the hammer on them thismorning.

[cravnravn]

Thats some serious fines and sanctions against Penn St..deservingly so.

[papasmurfbell]

They should have been suspended too.

[papasmurfbell]

[BengalBilly]

You guys ain't gonna believe this shit. It appears Sandusky has a book you can buy from Amazon. It's appropriately titled "Touched" and a used book will cost you $150. New is going for close to $500.

 

Here's the cover:

 

and a not too surprising image from within' it covers: Incredible, but true.

[cravnravn]

Suprised he dosent have a woody in that pic.