Jerry Sandusky Trial Did Not Include All of His Alleged Victims - East Idaho News
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Jerry Sandusky Trial Did Not Include All of His Alleged Victims

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sanduskybooking1?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1340461371801Booking photo(NEW YORK) — The fate of Jerry Sandusky ended with a guilty verdict Friday night in Bellefonte, Pa.

Following 20 hours of sequestered deliberations, the jury of seven women and five men read 45 “guilty” verdicts as Sandusky stood and looked at the jury. There were three not-guilty verdicts.

After court was adjourned, the former Penn State defensive coordinator was led in handcuffs to a police car to be taken to the local county jail. He faces a maximum sentence of 442 years and will be sentenced in approximately 90 days.

“The legal process has spoken and we have tremendous respect for the men who came forward to tell their stories publicly. No verdict can undo the pain and suffering caused by Mr. Sandusky, but we do hope this judgment helps the victims and their families along their path to healing,” Penn State president Rodney Erickson said in a statement.

Sandusky’s attorney, Joe Amendola, said the defense plans to appeal the guilty verdicts, arguing it was not prepared to go to trial as soon as the judge ordered.

“The Sandusky family is very disappointed, obviously, by the verdict of the jury but we respect their verdict,” he said. “We had a tidal wave of public opinion against Jerry Sandusky.”

While Sandusky likely will be sentenced to life in prison, waiting in the wings of the sex abuse case are a group of men who say that they, too, were abused by the former Penn State football coach.

“Other victims have come forward after the grand jury presentment in this case, and we intend to continue to look into those matters,” Pennsylvania Attorney General Linda Kelly said.

The men said they would have testified in a new case if Sandusky was acquitted on Friday.

An attorney for two men who say they were abused by Sandusky told ABC News that “more than a few” new accusers were ready to testify.

“The state and federal authorities have investigated. He has not been charged, but he could be charged (with these crimes),” said attorney Jeffrey Anderson, who represents two new accusers. One of Anderson’s clients, Travis Weaver, spoke publicly about the abuse for the first time this week.

“Travis came forward after the original eight, and since that time Travis is one of several to have come forward to report similar rape and abuse,” the lawyer said.

Weaver and the other men came forward to police after Sandusky’s arrest in November, but were left off the current case because of Sandusky’s right to a speedy trial, Anderson said.

“He is not the only one, and I am working with and know of more than a few,” Anderson said. “Time wouldn’t allow (for them to be included).”

Weaver told NBC this week that Sandusky took him to the Penn State football locker rooms, where he showered with him, rubbed his back and blew on his stomach, acts that eventually progressed to oral sex and attempted rape. He filed a lawsuit against Penn State University and the Second Mile foundation, the charity that Sandusky helped create, last year.

Ben Andreozzi, an attorney representing the man known as Victim 4 in the current case, also represents two other accusers whom he said have spoken to authorities.

Weaver and the other alleged victim represented by Anderson have also informed federal investigators about their claims, as part of a federal investigation into whether Sandusky molested boys outside of Pennsylvania, which would rise to the level of a federal crime.

Weaver said in his lawsuit that he was molested outside of Pennsylvania while accompanying Sandusky on trips to bowl games with the Penn State football team.

In addition, Sandusky’s adopted son Matt told prosecutors in recent days that he was also molested by the man who adopted him and is willing to testify against him. It’s not clear whether he would press charges, however.

And an analysis of the timeline of the eight men who are involved in the current trial shows that Sandusky was allegedly involved with several boys for most of 15 years, but the indictment does not include any victims from February 2001 through 2003.

Experts say that there are two possibilities for that apparent gap: that Sandusky stopped molesting boys for a period of time, or, more likely, that there are more victims of Sandusky’s abuse who have not come forward or been identified by police.

“My bet would be that there would be more victims out there,” said John Seryak of the organization Stop Educator Sexual Abuse and Misconduct. “If he was still very active in his organization The Second Mile, his access to children would be immediate. He obviously is a super skilled predator. It would be surprising that he wouldn’t act or spend that whole time grooming.”

For Sandusky, this could have led to a hiatus in his behavior that then could have resumed around 2004, according to Ken Singer, a social worker who treats pedophiles and a past president of Male Survivor, a network for survivors of sexual abuse.

“I’ve worked with offenders who have recidivated after a number of years,” Singer said. “It’s not that the desires or the impulses are not there but the degree of control, which could be anything from a spouse keeping a good watch on him that keeps him from acting on impulse, it could be disgust with self and promises not to do this again, but then they hit a situation where they go back to other behavior.”

Singer compared the behavior to that of an alcoholic.

“It’s similar to an alcoholic that has been drinking for years then stops because of internal conditions, he’s sick of drinking or whatever, finds sobriety, goes to AA, doesn’t drink again for a number of years but then falls off the wagon and resumes his former lifestyle,” Singer said.

While it is possible that Sandusky did stop for the years 2001 to 2004, Seryak said that it is unlikely. Pedophiles, he explained, can rarely control their impulses.

“If somebody was scared straight, he would want to disassociate from the organization,” Seryak said. “That’s not to say that when there was a report made in 2001 that it wasn’t some sort of a wake-up call, but child molesters never really get wake up calls. There is strong evidence that they can’t be rehabilitated.”

“Make no mistake about it,” he said. “These predators have a compulsiveness that’s extraordinary, beyond what any of us could ever imagine.”

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

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