Accuser: Sandusky threatened me after assault
Jun 13, 2012, 6:33 PM | Updated: 6:43 pm
BELLEFONTE, Pa. (AP) — Jerry Sandusky pinned down a foster child and performed
oral sex on him, threatened to keep him from seeing his family if he reported
what happened and then later told him he loved him, the accuser testified
Wednesday.
The man, now 25 and called Victim 10 by prosecutors, told jurors Sandusky
assaulted him in the basement of the former Penn State assistant football
coach’s State College home in the late 1990s, then threatened to keep him away
from his biological family.
“He told me that if I ever told anyone that I’d never see my family again,”
the accuser testified, adding that he believed Sandusky’s wife, Dottie, was home
at the time.
Later, Sandusky offered a more conciliatory tone.
“He apologized for saying that,” the witness said. “He told me he didn’t
mean it and that he loved me.”
The man said Sandusky also assaulted him on other occasions in 1998 and 1999,
including once at a pool and another time in the same basement that involved
mutual oral sex. He said he was about 11 years old at time of the alleged
assaults.
The alleged victim is one of two who came forward after Sandusky was initially
charged in November with assaulting eight boys. Sandusky is on trial on 52
criminal counts involving alleged assaults over a 15-year span.
Under cross-examination, the man testified that he was the roommate of another
Sandusky accuser at a camp sponsored by Sandusky’s charity, the Second Mile.
The alleged victim also acknowledged having spent nearly two years in state
prison for a robbery and involvement with drugs and alcohol, but said he was
doing better.
“I’m married. I’m expecting” a child, he said.
Another man, identified by prosecutors as Victim 7, told jurors that Sandusky
showered with him repeatedly and embraced him during sleepovers after he met the
then-coach through his charity in 1995, when the witness was 10.
Sandusky was “wrapping himself around me, holding me tightly” when he slept
over at his house, the 27-year-old said.
That contact with a sometimes-shirtless Sandusky has given the man an aversion
to chest hair, said the accuser, who also described Sandusky touching him
beneath his shorts and pants.
The man recalled attending Penn State games with Sandusky’s family and
receiving free tickets from Sandusky as recently as 2009.
“I wanted to go to games, I tried to block that stuff out and focus on the
positives,” he said.
The man said he only told his parents of the abuse last year, after being
approached by police.
“The more negative thing I sort of put in the back part of my mind — closing a
door, putting stuff in the attic is what I feel I did,” he said.
Earlier Wednesday, the father of former assistant coach Mike McQueary told the
jury details of a phone call he had with his son after the former Penn State
quarterback allegedly saw Sandusky abusing a young 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’s former athletic director each faces charges of failure
to report suspected child abuse and perjury related to their grand jury
testimony about Sandusky. Both maintain their innocence.
John McQueary’s testimony ended with an unusual exchange with one of Sandusky’s
attorneys. McQueary apparently couldn’t recall testifying at the preliminary
hearing for Schultz and athletic director Tim Curley, even after the attorney
showed McQueary a transcript from the hearing.
Two other alleged victims have already testified, describing in graphic detail
encounters with the coach that happened after they met him through his charity
for at-risk youth.
Sandusky, 68, has denied the allegations. Authorities said he abused the boys in
hotels, at his home and at the football team’s headquarters.
Sandusky’s attorneys have suggested his accusers have financial motivations for
coming forward.