Sandusky witness: I should have spoken out sooner

The first witness at Jerry Sandusky’s child sexual abuse trial said he feels responsible for what happened to other alleged victims because he didn’t come forward earlier.

The 28-year-old man said Monday he was reluctant to cooperate with the sweeping investigation into the allegations against the former Penn State assistant football coach.

Under cross-examination by defense lawyer Joe Amendola, the man said: “I feel if I just said something back then … I feel responsible for what happened to other victims.”

The man told jurors that Sandusky gave him several gifts, including a snowboard and a copy of Sports Illustrated magazine autographed by linebacker LaVar Arrington.

A jury of seven women and five men — many who have ties to Penn State University and were fans of Sandusky and the football team — will decide the fate of the former assistant coach.

The 68-year-old Sandusky faces 52 criminal counts for alleged abuse of 10 boys over 15 years, allegations he denies. Sandusky arrived at the courthouse in Bellefonte, Centre County, at 8:08 a.m. with his wife, Dottie, by his side. He has been under house arrest for about seven months.

A tent is up outside the back door of the courthouse to shield jurors and the alleged victims from the media spotlight.

6 News learned there was a question about one of the jurors, but that person was not removed from the case.

It took about a half hour for Judge John Cleland to address the jurors, then the prosecution began its opening statement. Sandusky hunched slightly in his seat at the defense table as Cleland outlined the charges to the jurors.

Prosecutors and defense lawyers have been under a gag order for months, so Monday’s opening statements disclosed new details about the investigation. The people inside Courtroom One heard some graphic details of the alleged abuse and the lead prosecutor showed pictures of the alleged victims to jurors during opening statements..

Sandusky sat quietly at the defense table and looked to his right at a video screen at times while Senior Deputy Attorney General Joseph McGettigan III outlined the allegations, which led to the ouster of longtime football coach Joe Paterno. McGettigan began his opening statements by showing the faces of the eight alleged victims, many of them smiling. He said six of the defendants had no fathers.

Some of the allegations read aloud by McGettigan were graphic. At one point, the prosecutor said Sandusky put his hand down one boy’s shirt and down his pants. McGettigan warned the testimony the jurors are about to hear will be gruesome but asked them to keep in mind they are about real people.

Sandusky was again accused of using his Second Mile charity to find and groom his victims.

During their investigation, the attorney general’s office said it interviewed maintenance workers at Penn State because prosecutors said many of the alleged assaults took place on campus at night.

Amendola, Sandusky’s attorney, told jurors the alleged victims conspired and shared information to get their stories straight.

His opening statement was much shorter than the prosecution, but alluded to the fact that Sandusky will take the witness stand and explain his relationship with the alleged victims and why it was not inappropriate.

During his opening statement, Amendola told jurors that Sandusky loves kids and asked the jury to keep an open mind.

Testimony in the case is expected to take about three weeks.

Also on Monday, NBC’s “Today” show aired a report that former Penn State President Graham Spanier and another top university official exchanged emails discussing an allegation that Sandusky molested a boy in a university shower in 2001 but ultimately decided against alerting child welfare authorities.

Spanier and former Vice President Gary Schultz, who headed the campus police department, agreed not to take the case to outside authorities out of concern for the retired assistant football coach, according to internal emails obtained by state law enforcement officials and given to NBC.

Spanier, who was ousted in the wake of Sandusky’s November arrest, did not immediately respond to an email message from The Associated Press.

The emails were discovered in the course of Louis Freeh’s internal probe of the Sandusky scandal and “immediately turned over to the state attorney general,” Penn State spokesman David La Torre told The Associated Press. Freeh, a former FBI director, was hired by the Penn State Board of Trustees to investigate, among other things, what school officials knew about Sandusky’s conduct and what they did with the information.

La Torre declined to comment on the contents of the emails, but said “We will continue to cooperate fully with all legal processes to determine what happened and ensure personal accountability.”

Schultz, who is retired, told a grand jury that Paterno and assistant Mike McQueary reported the 2001 shower encounter “in a very general way” but did not provide details.

Schultz and Athletic Director Tim Curley, who is on leave, are charged with lying to the grand jury and with failure to properly report suspected child abuse. Both deny the allegations and are seeking to have the charges dismissed.

Lawyers for Curley and Schultz said in a statement that the NBC report “confirms that, as they testified at the grand jury, Tim Curley and Gary Schultz conscientiously considered Mike McQueary’s reports of observing inappropriate conduct, reported it to the University President Graham Spanier, and deliberated about how to responsibly deal with the conduct and handle the situation properly.”

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