BELLEFONTE, Pa. — A school guidance counselor initially didn’t believe the abuse claims brought by one of Jerry Sandusky’s alleged victims because the former Penn State assistant football coach was considered to have “a heart of gold,” the accuser told jurors Tuesday.
The teen, labeled Victim No. 1 by a grand jury, tearfully recounted repeated instances of Sandusky kissing him, fondling him and oral sex, mostly in the basement of Sandusky’s State College, Penn., home during sleepovers.
Now 18, the witness recounted an early encounter that escalated to oral sex.
“I spaced,” the alleged victim said. “I didn’t know what to do with all the thoughts running through my head, I just kind of blacked out and didn’t want it to happen. I froze.”
As he choked back tears, the sobbing teen recounted another time Sandusky forced him to perform oral sex, after saying it was his “turn.”
“I don’t know how to explain it. I froze, like any other time,” he said. “My mind is telling me to move but I couldn’t do it, I couldn’t move.”
Sandusky faces 52 criminal counts related to the alleged assaults of 10 boys during a 15-year period. Authorities alleged Sandusky abused boys at his home and inside the football team’s on-campus facilities among other places.
The charges against him — and two university officials accused of perjury and failing to report suspected child abuse — touched off a massive scandal that led to the firing of Paterno and the departure of the university president. Paterno died in January of lung cancer, just over two months after his ouster.
The witness Tuesday said he stayed quiet about the abuse, in part because his mother thought Sandusky was a positive influence in his life. But eventually he asked his mother if there was a website used to track sex offenders. That ultimately led to a meeting with a guidance counselor where he said he’d been abused.
At first, the counselor didn’t believe him and questioned the wisdom of going to authorities, the witness said.
“They said we needed to think about it and he has a heart of gold and he wouldn’t do something like that. So they didn’t believe me,” he said.
During cross-examination, defense attorney Joe Amendola questioned whether the teen had financial motives for bringing his accusations, which the teen denied.
“All I know is I’m here to tell the truth about what happened to me, just like everybody else,” he said.
Sandusky didn’t visibly react to the teen’s account and looked straight ahead during his testimony.
The earliest of Sandusky’s alleged victims testified Monday, the trial’s opening day, telling jurors that the coach sent him “creepy love letters” and made him sign contracts that would pay him money for spending time together.
The man said he began showering with Sandusky in 1997 and what started out as “soap battles” quickly escalated to sexual contact, including oral sex.
Lead prosecutor Joseph McGettigan III has described Sandusky as a “serial predator” who methodically used his youth charity, The Second Mile, to zero in on fatherless children or those with unstable home lives, buy them gifts and take advantage of them sexually.
Amendola has countered that the case is flimsy and that some of the accusers apparently intend to sue and have a financial stake in the case — a preview of the battle to come as the defense tries to undermine the credibility of the young men upon whom the case rests.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
