Accusers recount Sandusky's abuse
BELLEFONTE, Pa. — One of Jerry Sandusky’s accusers said he stayed quiet to keep going to Penn State football games.
Another man, who was a foster child when he met Sandusky through his Second Mile charity, spoke of a threat — that Sandusky told him he would never see his family again if he told anyone what happened.
Those were among the ways Sandusky held sway following alleged inappropriate encounters, the two men testified Wednesday at the ex-assistant football coach’s child molestation trial.
“He told me that if I ever told anyone that I’d never see my family again,” said the man, now 25. He said he was terrified when Sandusky uttered the threat after the coach pinned him while wrestling in the basement of the Sandusky home and performed oral sex on him.
“I freaked out. I got nervous. I got scared,” the man said about the encounter. He said he believed Sandusky’s wife was on a different floor in the home.
The trial resumes today as prosecutors appear to be winding down their case against the 68-year-old Sandusky, charged with abusing 10 boys over a 15-year span. He has maintained his innocence.
Judge John Cleland said the prosecution could rest by the end of the day on Friday. Five of Sandusky’s accusers have now testified, including three on Wednesday.
The man who said he was threatened added that Sandusky later apologized for the threat about keeping him away from his biological family. “He told me he didn’t mean it and that he loved me,” the man said.
A foster child placed with another family, he occasionally stayed in the Sanduskys’ basement in State College in the late 1990s. The man, identified in court papers as Victim 10, said Sandusky also assaulted him on other occasions in 1998 and 1999, including once at a pool and another time in the basement. He said he was about 11 at the time.
The accuser is one of two who came forward after Sandusky was initially charged in November with assaulting eight boys.
Under cross-examination, the man said he was a roommate of another Sandusky accuser at a camp sponsored by The Second Mile. He also acknowledged spending nearly two years in prison for a robbery and involvement with drugs and alcohol.
Wednesday began with the father of former assistant coach Mike McQueary testifying about details of a phone call he had with his son after the graduate assistant coach allegedly saw Sandusky abusing a boy in a locker room shower.
John McQueary told the court he approached former university vice president Gary Schultz about the allegations to follow-up on his son’s report to the university. The elder McQueary said Schultz told him he’d heard “noises” previously about Sandusky misconduct.
Schultz and the school athletic director, who is on leave, each face charges of failure to report suspected child abuse and perjury related to their grand jury testimony about Sandusky. Both maintain their innocence.
