Jerry Sandusky Trial Braces to Hear from Additional Victims
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Patrick Smith/Getty Images(BELLEFONTE, Pa.) — A Penn State janitor who was cleaning the football locker rooms in 2001 when Jerry Sandusky allegedly forced a young boy to perform oral sex on him in a shower is expected to begin the fourth day of the Sandusky trial on Thursday with testimony about that night.
Jay Witherite, a veteran maintenance man in the campus’ football building, is expected to be called by the prosecution to help corroborate the story of his colleague, Ronald Petrosky, who testified Wednesday about the incident.
Both men were cleaning the building when a third janitor, James Calhoun, told them he saw Sandusky with a young boy in the shower, the boy pressed up against the wall, “licking” Sandusky’s genitals.
The boy, who has never been identified, is one of 10 alleged victims that Sandusky is accused of molesting over a 15-year period. He is charged with 52 counts of sex abuse and could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted.
The graphic testimony that has been the hallmark of the trial will continue as the final three accusers are called on Thursday and Friday to give their accounts of the sexual abuse allegedly suffered at the hands of Sandusky, 68, the former Penn State football coach. He is accused of starting a charity for underprivileged boys and then using the charity to select boys to molest.
The accuser known as Victim 6, who prompted an investigation into Sandusky’s behavior in 1998, is expected to testify about showering with Sandusky. The coach allegedly bear-hugged the boy while the two were naked, a description that has been shared by other alleged victims in prior testimony.
The investigation into Victim 6’s account never led to charges against Sandusky, which could offer the defense attorneys an opportunity to claim that the accusation was already found to be baseless.
Two other men known as Victim 3 and Victim 9 are also expected to testify on Thursday. Victim 3 is expected to recount an episode of uncomfortable showering with Sandusky, and Victim 9 is likely to describe repeated sexual abuse in Sandusky’s basement, where he once allegedly yelled for the help of Sandusky’s wife, but was ignored.
Sandusky has denied all of the accusations of sexual misconduct, and his attorney, Joseph Amendola, has been charged with the task of discrediting the eight accusers and other witnesses the state has called.
Amendola has persistently gone after the inconsistencies in witness stories, pointing out during each cross-examination that some of the alleged victims told investigators one story, the grand jury another story, and the courtroom this week a third version of the story.
But some witnesses, including Mike McQueary and the man known as Victim 5 who testified on Wednesday, were unshakable in their accounts.
The prosecution is expected to rest their case on Friday. Sandusky’s defense team will then have their chance to call witnesses, likely including Sandusky’s wife, Dottie, as well as a family friend of Mike McQueary’s who is expected to contradict McQueary’s claim that he did not witness sex on the night he walked into the showers where Sandusky and a boy were naked together.
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