Day 4 of Sandusky trial set to begin

Published 10:06 am Thursday, June 14, 2012

More testimony is planned for Thursday in Jerry Sandusky’s fast-moving child-sex abuse trial, and the prosecution could wrap up its case by the end of the week.

Jurors were expected to hear testimony from three more of the former Penn State assistant football coach’s alleged victims before prosecutors rest, which could be Friday.

Sandusky is charged with 52 criminal counts involving 10 boys over a 15-year span. Five accusers have already testified. Authorities say they don’t know the identities of two of the victims, although jurors heard from witnesses who described the assaults.

Testimony through the first three days of the trial has been graphic and emotional at times, painting Sandusky as a man who used his fame as a top assistant to Hall of Fame coach Joe Paterno to hold sway over boys.

Sandusky has denied the allegations. Defense attorney Joe Amendola has suggested the accusers have financial motives for coming forward.

“He told me that if I ever told anyone that I’d never see my family again,” said one accuser, who at the time of the alleged assaults was living in foster care. The witness, now 25, 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 that Sandusky’s wife was home at the time, but on a different floor.

The man said Sandusky later apologized for the threat. “He told me he didn’t mean it and that he loved me,” the man said.

Two other alleged victims testified Wednesday that Sandusky had inappropriate contact with them — with one telling the court he kept quiet about the abuse because he wanted to keep going to Penn State football games.

Also Wednesday the jury heard from a Penn State janitor who said a fellow employee had told him he’d seen Sandusky performing a sex act in a shower with a boy. That alleged victim is one of the two who hasn’t been identified.