Officer: Sandusky should have been charged in 1998

A police detective who investigated Jerry Sandusky in 1998 says he still believes charges should have been filed then, but the district attorney didn’t do so.

Ronald Schreffler testified Thursday he interviewed Sandusky in 1998 after a woman complained about her 11-year-old son and the former Penn State assistant football coach showering together.

Schreffler says he felt charges were warranted, but Ray Gricar, the DA at the time, didn’t agree. Gricar disappeared in 2005 and has been declared legally dead.

Earlier Thursday, the alleged victim in that 1998 encounter described Sandusky lathering him up and lifting him under a showerhead to rinse his hair.Under cross-examination, the man acknowledged staying in contact with Sandusky for years.

Thursday  marks the fourth day of testimony and the prosecution could wrap up its case by the end of the week.

The 68-year-old Sandusky has denied allegations of abusing 10 boys over a 15-year period, and his attorney has suggested the accusers have financial motives.

On Wednesday, a man who worked at Penn State testified said he witnessed Sandusky leaving a shower with a child. Later that night, he talked to his co-worker, who was a janitor at the time. The janitor told him that he’d seen Sandusky making a boy perform oral sex on him.

Also on Wednesday, a 23-year-old man being called Victim 5, testified that Sandusky exposed himself in a sauna they were sharing and grabbed his genitals in a shower shortly after. Speaking to jurors at the trial, Victim 5 said the alleged abuse took place in 2001, just before he turned 13.

In addition, a man whom court documents refer to as Victim 10 testified the former Penn State assistant football coach pinned him down and performed oral sex on him, then told him he’d never see his family again if he told anyone. Victim 10 testified he first met Sandusky in 1998 when he was 11 years old.

On Tuesday, Sandusky sat stone-faced as one of his accusers offered explicit testimony before star witness Mike McQueary took the stand. McQueary testified to hearing “slapping noises” and seeing Sandusky standing behind a boy in a Penn State shower in 2001.

McQueary is standing firmly by his claim that he saw Jerry Sandusky, naked in a team shower, apparently sodomizing a boy. McQueary testified Tuesday that while he couldn’t say with “1,000 percent” certainty, he is convinced Sandusky “was having sex” with the boy.

McQueary told coach Joe Paterno, who relayed it to his superiors, including the administrative head of campus police. Paterno was fired days after Sandusky’s arrest in November, and school trustees later cited, in part, a failure to do more to alert outside authorities.

McQueary’s father, John McQueary, told the court on Wednesday that he told his son to call Paterno after he spotted Sandusky in the shower with a young boy. He repeated the story that his son told the court on Tuesday, saying Mike McQueary did not see Sandusky having sex, but the actions in the shower were definitely sexual in nature.

Stay with 6 News, WJACTV.com and WJACTV.com Mobile for continuing coverage.