BELLEFONTE, Pa. — Jerry Sandusky was either a “predatory pedophile” who lured young boys to Penn State with gifts and access to big-time football, or a victim of now-grown men who lied to get a payout, attorneys argued Thursday as the former coach’s child sex abuse case went to a jury.
As jurors deliberated into the evening, one of Sandusky’s adopted sons came forward for the first time to say that his father had abused him. Matt Sandusky, 33, was prepared to testify for prosecutors at the trial, his attorneys said in a statement. The statement didn’t specify what the alleged abuse was.
Jerry Sandusky, who faces life in prison if convicted of 48 counts of abuse of 10 boys over 15 years, was smiling and chuckling to himself as prosecutors wrapped up closing arguments. His wife, Dottie, leaned forward in her seat with a concerned look, resting her chin in her hands.
The former assistant football coach was arrested last November in a scandal that led to the firing of Joe Paterno, Penn State’s beloved head coach who died of cancer in January, and the departure of the university’s president.
The jury deliberated for more than eight hours Thursday before stopping at about 9:30 p.m. Earlier in the evening, the panel asked the judge if they could rehear testimony from two witnesses: Mike McQueary, a former graduate assistant who reported seeing Sandusky assault a boy in a campus shower, and Dr. Jonathan Dranov, who testified that McQueary gave him a different account of what he saw.
They’ll have a chance to listen again to that testimony and restart deliberations today.
Prosecutors said Sandusky was “a serial, predatory pedophile” who used gifts and the pageantry of Penn State’s vaunted football program to attract and abuse vulnerable boys who came from troubledhomes.
“What you should do is come out and say to the defendant that he molested and abused and give them back their souls,” Joseph McGettigan III, the senior deputy attorney general, told jurors. “I give them to you. Acknowledge and give them justice.”
During his closing argument, McGettigan put up smiling pictures of eight accusers when they were children; all testified at trial that Sandusky molested them.
Standing behind Sandusky, McGettigan implored the jury to convict him.
“He molested and abused and hurt these children horribly,” McGettigan said. “He knows he did it, and you know he did it. Find him guilty of everything.”
Defense attorney Joseph Amendola argued that the 68-year-old Sandusky was targeted by investigators who coached accusers into making false claims about a generous man whose charity gave them much-needed love.
“They went after him, and I submit to you they were going to get him hell or high water, even if they had to coach witnesses,” Amendola said in his closing argument.
The closing arguments came after seven days of testimony, some of it graphically describing alleged abuse suffered at the hands of Sandusky, including touching in showers and in some cases forced sex. One alleged victim - a foster child at the time - testified that Sandusky threatened him, telling him he would never see his family again if he disclosed the assaults.
Prosecutors said Sandusky met his victims through The Second Mile, a charity he founded for at-risk youth.
Eight young men testified that they were abused by Sandusky, and jurors heard about two other alleged victims through other witnesses, including another former coach.
Sandusky has repeatedly denied the allegations, but he didn’t testify during the trial.
Sports, Pages 15 on 06/22/2012