How Could You? Hall of Shame Jerry Sandusky Part VI UPDATED and Gary Schultz and Tim Curley

Part One can be found here .

Part Two can be found here.

Part Three can be found here .

Part Four can be found here .

Part Five can be found here.

Freeh’s report can be found here.

This is update 51/October 9, 2012

Sentencing took place on October 9, 2012. Jerry faced 442 years in prison. Judge Cleland gave him a minimum of 30 years. With a sentence of 30 to 60 years in Pennsylvania, he is required to serve the minimum unless he is granted a new trial. His lawyer Joe Amendola claims that he will appeal.

“Sandusky, appearing in court in a bright red jail jumpsuit, delivered a sometimes rambling four-minute statement in which he denied his crimes, saying that he would “fight” to overturn the verdicts against him.

“They can make me out as a monster, but in my heart I know I didn’t do these alleged, disgusting things,” Sandusky said before the judge.

Sandusky was preceded by three of his victims, two of whom spoke through tears, about how he had “betrayed” their trust. One of them, designated by the state grand jury as “Victim 4,” looked directly at Sandusky and told him: “You should be ashamed of yourself. I want you to know I will not forgive you. I don’t know if I could ever forgive you.”

The short hearing ended with Judge John Cleland describing Sandusky’s statement as “unbelievable.”

Cleland said the “ultimate tragedy of this case is that the very victims you abused had your trust, they trusted you. This crime is not only about crimes of the body, it is also about the assaults on their psyches and their souls.”

Before pronouncing sentence, Cleland acknowledged that he could impose a sentence of “centuries,” referring to the maximum punishment of 442 years. But given Sandusky’s age, 68, the lesser term still ensured that he would spend the rest of his life in prison.

Lead prosecutor Joseph McGettigan said the sentence represented “a great service to justice.”

“It ensures that he spends the rest of his natural life in prison,” McGettigan said.

He describes Sandusky’s courtroom statement as “delusional, self-reverential and untethered to reality.”

“He displayed the same cowardice as when he preyed on children.”

Penn State President Rodney Erickson released a statement moments after Sandusky’s sentencing: “Our thoughts today, as they have been for the last year, go out to the victims of Jerry Sandusky’s abuse. While today’s sentence cannot erase what has happened, hopefully it will provide comfort to those effected by these horrible events and help them continue down the road to recovery.”

Karl Rominger, one of Sandusky’s attorneys, said the defense team was “pleased” with the sentence because the judge didn’t impose a “gratuitous” number of years beyond the lifetime of a 68-year-old man.”

Sandusky sentenced in Penn State sex scandal

[USA Today 10/9/12 by Kevin Johnson]

“Cleland said the penalty imposed in the Centre County courtroom is, and was meant to be, a life prison term. The 68-year-old Sandusky, Cleland said, is a “dangerous” child molester who should never again see the outside of a prison yard.

Cleland imposed the sentence during a 90-minute hearing at which he also deemed Sandusky a sexually violent predator under Megan’s Law.”

“The man known as Victim One said Sandusky, once the smiling, fatherly face of the Second Mile charity for troubled children, is evil incarnate for repeatedly molesting him under the guise of friendship. “Jerry Sandusky humiliated me beyond description,” Victim One said in a statement read by Chief Deputy Attorney General Joe McGettigan. “My years with Jerry Sandusky were taken from me. I just wanted a childhood like everyone else.”

He called Sandusky “the worst kind of pedophile,” a powerful man who victimizes the helpless.

“There is no remorse. There is no acknowledgement of regret, only evil,” Victim One said.

A man known throughout Sandusky’s prosecution as Victim Nine also focused on Sandusky’s deceit, but said his faith will help him overcome the trauma of his molestation. “I will walk down the road to healing with Jesus holding my hand,” he said.

Another man, known as Victim Five, said the pain Sandusky caused “will be inside me forever as an open wound.”

“He took away my childhood the day he assaulted me,” he told Cleland. “He should be sentenced accordingly.”

Sandusky Kooky Comments

“He promised to appeal in a bid to clear his name, thanked his loved ones and others who are still standing by him, and said how much he misses his wife, Dottie, and other relatives, along with his dog. He urged his wife and other supporters to “stay strong.”

Sandusky counseled against “closing the book” on his case following his sentencing. “There’s a lot more to learn,” he said.

His statement rambled at times as he talked about the trauma and loneliness of being in prison these last several months. He lamented how he spent his last wedding anniversary behind bars.

Sandusky said that, although he professes to be innocent, he hopes that the attention surrounding his case deters molesters from abusing children. “Maybe this will help others,” he said. “Some vulnerable children who might have been abused ought not to be because of this publicity.”

Jerry Sandusky is ‘dangerous’ child molester, deserves life sentence, judge says

[The Patriot News 10/9/12 by Matt Miller]

“That appeal, defense attorney Joe Amendola said, will focus squarely on Judge John Cleland’s refusal to grant Sandusky delays in the June trial date, a decision that Amendola said forced him to cut off several defense avenues in mid-stream.

With sentence rendered, Sandusky attorneys talk appeal

[The Patriot News 10/9/12 by Charles Thompson]

Jerry released an audio statement the night before sentencing. The Patriot News has the transcript here and pasted below:
“I’m responding to the worst loss of my life. First, I looked at myself. Over and over, I asked why? Why didn’t we have a fair opportunity to prepare for trial? Why have so many people suffered as a result of false allegations? What’s the purpose? Maybe it will help others; some vulnerable children who could be abused, might not be because of all the publicity. That would be nice, but I’m not sure about it.

I would cherish the opportunity to become a candle for others, as they have been a light for me. They could take away my life, they could make me out as a monster, they could treat me as a monster, but they can’t take away my heart. In my heart, I know I did not do these alleged disgusting acts.

My wife has been my only sex partner that was after marriage. Our love continues.

A young man who was dramatic a veteran accuser, and always sought attention, started everything. He was joined by a well-orchestrated effort of the media, investigators, the system, Penn State, psychologists, civil attorneys and other accusers. They won. I’ve wondered what they really won: Attention, financial gain, prestige& will all be temporary.

Before you blame me, as others have, look at everything and everybody. Look at the preparation for the trial and the trial. Compare it to others. Think about what happened. Why, and who made it happen? Evaluate the accusers and their families. Realize they didn’t come out of isolation. The accusers were products of many more people and experiences than me. Look at their confidants and their honesty. Think about how easy it was for them to turn on me given the information, attention and potential perks. I never labeled or put down them or their families. I tried and I cared, then asked for the same.

Please realize all came to the Second Mile because of issues. Some of those may remain.

We will continue to fight. We didn’t lose the proven facts, evidence, accurate locations and times. Anything can be said. We lost to speculation and stories that were influenced by people who wanted to convict me. We must fight unfairness and consistency and dishonesty. People need to be portrayed for who they really are. We’ve not been complainers. When we couldn’t have kids, we adopted. When we didn’t have time to prepare for a trial, we still gave it our best. We will fight for another chance. We have given many second chances, and now we’ll ask for one. It will take more than our effort.

Justice will have to be more than just a word; fairness more than just a dream. It will take others: somebody apolitical with the courage to listen, to think about the unfairness, to have the guts to stand up and take the road less traveled. I ask for the strength to handle everything and willingness to surrender only to God, regardless of the outcome.”

REFORM Puzzle Piece

Update 52/October 16, 2012

Dottie disses Matt. PSU tries to revoke Sandusky’s pension. Sandusky’s haunting words to his victims at sentencing.
“Before Jerry Sandusky was sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison, his wife wrote an indignant letter to the judge criticizing her husband’s accusers, particularly their adopted son Matt.

“As far as our son Matt goes, people need to know what kind of person he is,” Dottie Sandusky wrote in a letter to Judge John Cleland ahead of sentencing.

Dottie Sandusky was referring to Matt Sandusky, who was adopted by the couple when he was a teenager and who, in the middle of his adoptive father’s sex abuse trial, told prosecutors that he too had been molested.

“We have forgiven him many times for all he has done to our family thinking that he was changing his life, but he would always go back to his stealing and lies,” Mrs. Sandusky wrote.

Matt Sandusky, one of six children adopted by the couple, defended his father during the investigation, but abruptly changed his statement and offered to testify against his adoptive dad once the trial began.

Dottie claimed that their youngest son, Matt, was bipolar, has had multiple run-ins with the law, and has stolen money from the Sandusky family, though she said she still loves him. Matt Sandusky was not able to be reached for comment.”

“Sandusky has been sent to Camp Hill state prison for mental and physical evaluation before he is permanently placed in a different state prison. ”

Jerry Sandusky’s Wife Says Adopted Son ‘Full of Lies’ in Letter to Judge

[ABC News 10/11/12 by Colleen Curry]

“Pennsylvania’s public employee pension system said Wednesday it will revoke Jerry Sandusky’s $59,000 annual pension in the wake of his conviction and sentence in the child sexual abuse scandal.

The State Employees’ Retirement System notified Sandusky by letter that his crimes triggered forfeiture of his pension. The former Penn State assistant football coach was sentenced Tuesday to at least 30 years in prison for molesting 10 boys.

The retirement system told Sandusky he will no longer receive his $4,908 monthly annuity and informed his wife, Dottie, she is no longer entitled to a survivor’s benefit.
Sandusky’s lawyer, Karl Rominger, contended the agency has no legal grounds for revoking the pension and said Sandusky will fight any attempt to do so.

“It’s my inclination to believe that they are just going through the motions to try to throw some red meat to the public, but they know they are going to lose,” Rominger said.

Pennsylvania’s pension forfeiture law, originally passed in 1978, primarily applies to public employees convicted of a financial crime related to the office “or when his public employment places him in a position to commit the crime.”

Since 2004, it has also applied to any public school employee convicted of a sex crime against a student.

In its letter to Sandusky, the retirement system said it had determined that two of the criminal charges of which Sandusky was convicted — involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and indecent assault — fell under the forfeiture law.

It also said Sandusky maintained extensive ties to Penn State after his 1999 retirement, qualifying him as a “de facto” employee subject to forfeiture for crimes committed even when he was no longer on the university’s payroll.

SERS’ letter to Sandusky was released to The Associated Press in response to an open-records request.

Rominger argued in part that since Sandusky wasn’t convicted of molesting a Penn State student, the forfeiture law does not apply to him. Sandusky’s young victims came to him through The Second Mile, his charity for troubled youth.

“It did not involve students where he worked, and that’s going to be the crux,” Rominger said.

But Philadelphia attorney Alaine Williams, an expert on public employee labor law, said courts have broadly construed the forfeiture law.

“I think he’s got a very serious problem,” she said ahead of the retirement system’s announcement.

Sandusky entered the State Employees’ Retirement System when he began working as a Penn State football coach in 1969. He collected a $148,000 lump sum payment when he retired from the university in 1999, and began receiving a monthly annuity, according to records provided by SERS. Sandusky received a total of $900,000 in pension payments between 1999 and September 2012.

The forfeiture statute permits an employee to keep his or her contributions without interest, minus any fees or restitution association with the employee’s conviction. Employees subject to forfeiture can appeal to the board of the State Employees’ Retirement System, then through the state court system.”

Pennsylvania moves to revoke Sandusky’s $59,000 pension

[New York Daily News 10/10/12]

“Sandusky stood and spoke for about 15 minutes, and this setup was exactly what he wanted. He didn’t take the stand at his trial, when he would have faced the wrath of deputy attorney general Joseph McGettigan on cross-examination. He’s refused to sit for an interview with the media in recent months, where facts and pointed questions would unravel him. He already fumbled through a brief, impromptu session with Bob Costas where exact details weren’t even broached.

No, this was perfect. Sandusky’s was the final voice at the hearing, so he would talk and everyone would listen. Sandusky was in control, staring right at the judge about to condemn him, his words floating over a courtroom packed with the victims and the damn cops who finally got him, rows of reporters taking down every word.

No rebuttals. No tackles. Touchdown Jerry in practice red

There was no acknowledgement of Sandusky’s crimes, no apologies to the victims, no signs that he cared or even understood the path of destruction he left in his wake here. Sandusky maintained his innocence and vowed an appeal. Then he flaunted his depravity in open court.

Sandusky dismissed everything presented, every shred of evidence, every emotional witness-stand session. Three of his former victims mustered the courage to come and address him directly, and he responded with a dismissive smirk as he sat hunched over the defense table. Another victim came to the hearing and had a statement read by McGettigan.

The coach had a strategy, a two-part game plan and he was executing it. On Monday, Amendola instructed him that a sentencing hearing wasn’t the time or place to attack witnesses and argue innocence. If he tried, Judge John Cleland would silence him on the spot.

Within hours, a pre-taped audio statement from jail was conveniently playing on Penn State’s ComRadio. It allowed him to condemn the system, label everything a conspiracy and beg those with “the courage to listen” to “evaluate the accusers and their families.” He then promptly did it for them, of course, labeling his victims as greedy, dishonest, disloyal, poor, trashy, troubled liars.

“An insult to human decency,” McGettigan called Sandusky’s statement.

“Like all conspiracy theories, it flows from the undeniable to the unbelievable,” Judge Cleland scolded.

“You tried to attack us as if we had done something wrong,” Victim No. 4 said to him directly. “You have no morals.”

Another unwitting assault finished, Sandusky switched tactics for the second part of his plan.

Over and over he spoke about the good times of his life, the good visions of the past and about how no conviction, no sentence, no little isolated prison cell could take those memories from him. He spoke of saying that a friend had provided him a helpful saying to reflect on as he sits in a cell: “It doesn’t matter what you look at, it’s what you see.”

“I look at those walls and I see light,” Sandusky joyously declared. “I see letters of support, I see great memories. I see family and friends. I see those who overcame big obstacles.”

You can’t touch me, he was saying. You can’t hurt me after I’ve lived such a righteous existence. These bars and walls and razor wire are powerless to that. Then, worst of all, he said he would remember more.

He would remember the kids.

“I see my throwing thousands of kids up in the air, hundreds of water balloon battles, happy times, people laughing with us,” Sandusky said. “I see kids laughing and playing, and I see a loveable dog licking their face.”

For decades, Sandusky used every manipulative trick to molest young boys, and he was trying the same here. To bring up his ruse of tossing prepubescent boys into the air – one of his first moves grooming new victims in the pool at the Second Mile camp for disadvantaged children that McGettigan calls a “victim factory” – was particularly cruel.

Sandusky would “kind of [pretend] like he was having trouble getting a good grip,” Victim No. 4 described those pool sessions back at trial. “And as he was grabbing you, he would brush your genitals and then throw you.”

Sandusky heard Victim 4’s testimony on the witness stand a few months back. Now, he was flipping it around as the same guy was sitting right there in the gallery, forced to listen.

You bet Sandusky was going to remember all those throws in the air, all those troubles getting a grip, all those brushes of the genitals.

That was about the depth of his speech. A sick final spin on his conviction. Sandusky played martyr a bit and he expressed undying love for his family and friends who still visit him and make his life bearable. And he went on some pointless, self-absorbed spiels

Mostly though he wanted everyone to know he would draw strength from the memory of his time with children, all the children, and allthe memories, an unspoken nod to the horrors that haunt his grown victims. Go ahead and put him in prison, he was saying. He’ll be thinking of them, reliving his time with them, enjoying a look back at every single act they experienced together.

What we call despicable and criminal, Jerry Sandusky calls a “blessed life.”

Across the courtroom, Victim No. 6, the boy who Sandusky lured into a Penn State shower back in 1998, sat with his head down, intermittently weeping as Sandusky spoke. Earlier, the victim described Sandusky getting him naked under the running water and declaring himself the “‘Tickle Monster,’ so you could rub my 11-year-old body and get me to think that what you were doing was OK.” The ensuing police investigation led to no charges. Sandusky continued. Now Victim No. 6 couldn’t even bear to look up.

This was about seizing one final bit of control over the kids, the ones who have come forward and the ones who still remain silent. During the past year he did it over and over, whether it was waiving hearings at the final moment and forcing witnesses to prepare for nothing, or sitting with an ugly smug look as they testified about the sickest moments of their shattered lives.

This was a shrewd plan, and throughout this entire ordeal, of all the terrible things people said and proved Jerry Sandusky to be, no one ever claimed he wasn’t remarkably intelligent, creative and cunning.

This was Sandusky bathing them in his narcissism, reminding everyone, and his victims in particular, that when he leans back on that prison bed, no matter how thin the mattress, uncomfortable the conditions or inedible the lunch, no one can stop him from reliving it all.

He wanted them to know: They’ll remain his. Forever. That part of Touchdown Jerry, clad in red, remains safe and secure.

“A most banal, self-delusional, completely-untethered-from-reality, entirely-self-focused-as-if-he-himself-was-the-victim,” McGettigan said, blasting Sandusky’s statement.

“It was, in short, ridiculous.”

The only hope is that it wasn’t effective, that it won’t stick with those frightened kids who became powerful men, and that the hateful, harmful words of Jerry Sandusky just drifted off into the Bellefonte air, soon to be forgotten like the shrinking pathetic man they took away on Tuesday to die.’

Jerry Sandusky delivers one final hateful, haunting response to his victims

[Yahoo Sports 10/9/12 by Dan Wetzel]

Update 53/October 30, 2012

(1) Travis Weaver goes on Dr. Phil with Poly Prep accuser Greg Bucceroni.

“Travis Weaver said he found himself “pinned on the bed” of a Philadelphia hotel room held down by former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky after the 14-year-old had come out of the shower.

“I told (Sandusky) I was going to call the cops. He just laughed at me,” Weaver said on the “Dr. Phil” TV program Friday. “(Sandusky) told me no one was ever going to believe me over him. I was scared. I believed him.”

“Bucceroni alleged on Friday that he was once offered $200 “to engage in child sex with Jerry Sandusky” and that Savitz and Sandusky “were always exchanging photos (of naked boys), kind of like baseball cards.” See Poly Prep post here.

Poly Prep accuser, Sandusky ‘victim’ share details with ‘Dr. Phil’

[New York Daily News 9/28/12 by Christian Red]

(2) 22-Year old man says Sandusky molested him at PSU summer camp in 2005, files lawsuit

“The plaintiff, called “John Doe” in court papers, said he was 14 when he attended a camp run by The Second Mile, Sandusky’s charity for troubled youths. He said the former Penn State assistant football coach approached him in a campus swimming pool, grabbed his genitals and said, “What have we here?”

“Deeply confused and troubled, the plaintiff recoiled from what Sandusky said and did. He backed away, as rapidly as he could, telling Sandusky he didn’t want anything like that,” the suit said.

The lawsuit was filed Monday in federal court in Scranton. The defendants are Sandusky; The Second Mile; Penn State; former university officials Graham Spanier, Tim Curley and Gary Schultz; Penn State’s law firm, McQuaide Blasko; the school’s former general counsel, Wendell Courtney; and Edgewater Psychiatric Center, the agency that referred the plaintiff to Sandusky’s charity.

The lawsuit said Penn State and the other defendants knew Sandusky was a predator but did nothing to stop him.

“Plaintiff has suffered deep upset and injury and has been permanently injured emotionally and has been traumatized by the abuse he has suffered at the hands of the defendants,” the suit said.

The accuser decided to come forward after Sandusky’s arrest.

At least four other lawsuits have been filed by victims or accusers in the sexual abuse scandal. Penn State has said it wants to settle with Sandusky’s victims. A university spokesman declined to comment Wednesday on the latest suit.

Representatives of the other defendants did not immediately respond to requests for comment.”

In lawsuit, man says Jerry Sandusky groped him in 2005

[York Daily Record 10/17/12 by  Michael Rubinkam/Associated Press]

(3)Sandusky files motions in 31-page document on Thursday October 18, 2012

“Sandusky wants the charges tossed out “and/or” a new trial, saying the statute of limitations had run out for many of the 45 counts for which he was convicted in June. ”

“The defendant submits the court’s sentence was excessive and tantamount … to a life sentence, which the defendant submits is in violation of his rights,” his lawyers wrote.

The set of motions, technically not appeals because they were filed with the trial judge, cover a wide range of assertions, including insufficient evidence and improper use of hearsay testimony.

More than a third of the document explores ways Sandusky believes the rapid pace of the case violated his right to due process of law, as he was tried just over seven months after arrest. His lawyers said they were swamped by documents from prosecutors, they lacked time to interview possible witnesses and an expert and two assistants were not available at trial.

The document said Judge John Cleland ruled improperly concerning the use of a computer-generated drawing of an accuser and issued incorrect jury instructions. It also raised issues about the vagueness of the charges, the sequestering of jurors and the amount of restitution ordered.

A spokesman for the attorney general’s office said the Sandusky filing was under review.”

Sandusky appeals child sex abuse convictions; says trial wasn’t fair

[The Times-Picayune 10/19/12 by Associated Press]

(4) Aaron Fisher (Victim 1) writes book

“A young man whose sexual-abuse claims triggered the investigation of former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky says in his new book Sandusky’s wife once called down to the basement while he was being attacked and Sandusky dismissed her by saying he was busy.

Aaron Fisher writes in “Silent No More” that Dottie Sandusky asked her husband to fix a table upstairs but that when he replied he was fixing an air hockey table she dropped the subject.

“Sarge,” Fisher wrote, using her nickname, “never went down to the basement.”

The basement, according to court testimony, is where Sandusky abused Fisher and other boys who stayed overnight at his home.

Fisher, who was known publicly for a year only as Victim 1, put aside anonymity Friday to speak about his ordeal as a child, telling ABC’s “20/20” he had contemplated suicide because authorities took so long to prosecute Sandusky, nearly three years after he and his mother first alerted school officials.

The Associated Press bought an early copy of Fisher’s book, which is being published next week.

Jerry Sandusky didn’t testify at trial but has repeatedly said he is innocent, and Dottie Sandusky has maintained she never saw him behave inappropriately with children.

Not only that, Jerry Sandusky’s lawyer Joe Amendola said Friday, “she said they had a freezer in the basement so she would routinely go down there go get stuff to make for dinner. She said had she thought Jerry was doing anything inappropriate, she said he wouldn’t have needed the judicial system.”

In the book, Fisher’s mother and co-author, Dawn Daniels, recounts meeting Jerry Sandusky after her son had spent a couple of summers at events held by his charity, The Second Mile.

“When Aaron introduced us, Jerry shook my hand, put his arm around Aaron, roughed up his hair and said, ‘You got a good kid on your hands there,'” she said, according to the book.

Fisher wrote that in an early warning sign, while swimming together he felt Sandusky’s hand on his crotch a “little too long.” During car rides, he said, Sandusky had him sit up front and would put his hand on the boy’s thigh.

He first reported the abuse in 2008, but he said the state attorney general’s office told him it needed more victims before Sandusky would be charged. Sandusky was arrested last November.

The delay, Fisher said, made him increasingly desperate.

“I thought maybe it would be easier to take myself out of the equation,” he told ABC. “Let somebody else deal with it.”

Fisher, 18, testified at Sandusky’s trial, which ended with Sandusky convicted of 45 counts of abuse involving Fisher and nine other boys. Sandusky, 68, was sentenced this month to 30 to 60 years in prison.

Fisher said he began spending nights at the Sandusky home in State College, about 30 miles from his own home in Lock Haven, when he was 11. He said kissing and back rubbing during those overnight visits progressed to oral sex. He said he tried to distance himself from Sandusky, to no avail.

Fisher was 15 when he and his mother reported the abuse to a school principal, who responded that “Jerry has a heart of gold and that he wouldn’t do those type of things,” Fisher told ABC, repeating his trial testimony.

In the book, Fisher describes the moment when he told the principal and a guidance counselor Sandusky had molested him: “All the color when out of their faces. I wouldn’t give them any details, because it was so embarrassing to tell that kind of stuff to women.”

School officials reported Sandusky to Clinton County Children and Youth Services, which began an investigation and brought in state police.

The AP typically does not name sexual-abuse victims, unless they identify themselves publicly, as Fisher has done.

Amendola said Fisher and other accusers were motivated by money, a claim he has repeatedly made.”

Sandusky accuser tells of abuse ordeal in new book

[Associated Press 10/19/12 by Mark Scolforo]

“He once followed my bus home from school,” he said. “I took off running, but he drove on the opposite side of the street – into oncoming traffic – to catch up with me.”

It took three years before Fisher mustered the courage, in 2008, to tell administrators at Central Mountain High School about the former coach’s conduct, and their response left him dumbstruck.

“They tell me to go home and think about it,” he said, recalling the scene. “Here I am, beside my mom, crying, telling them, and they don’t believe me. I knew they wouldn’t.”

At his mother’s prompting, Fisher next took his story to Clinton County’s division of Children and Youth Services.

State troopers, the Attorney General’s Office, and grand juries all eventually became involved. But after he described his abuse in graphic detail over and over again, the case seemed to stagnate, he said.

Prosecutors told him they needed to find more victims to bring a case, he told ABC.

By the time Sandusky was arrested Nov. 7, three years after he came forward, Fisher assumed they had dropped the case.

“I wasn’t expecting it,” he said. “I was kind of thinking that he’d get off scot free.”

After having seen his abuser convicted in court, shamed in public, and sentenced to prison for what is likely to be the rest of his life, Fisher said, he still has reservations about the process that brought about that result.

“I endured heartaches and numerous amounts of people who didn’t believe me and walked away from me,” he said. “I lost a good portion of my childhood.”

Sandusky’s Victim 1 considered suicide

[The Inquirer 10/21/12 by Jeremy Roebuck]

(5) Jerry was transferred to state prison on Tuesday, October 23, 2012

“Camp Hill is where he’ll be processed, tested and evaluated. It’ll be a week or more before he’s assigned to one of the state facilities as his “home” prison. ”

Jerry Sandusky moved to Camp Hill prison for processing

[The Patriot-News 10/23/12 by Associated Press]

(6)December 10,2012 is the first appeal hearing

“The first of what could be many appeals hearings in the Jerry Sandusky case has been scheduled for Dec. 10 in Centre County court.”

“Judge John Cleland today ordered that Sandusky’s defense has until Nov. 9 to update its initial appeal — since he hired a new attorney, Norris Gelman — and that the Attorney General’s Office will then have until Dec. 5 to reply.

Jerry Sandusky’s first appeal hearing scheduled for December 10

[The Patriot-News 10/25/12 by Sara Ganim]

(7) McQueary Lawsuit Status Hearing against PSU indefinitely postponed.

He was supposed to have the hearing on October 30, 2012.

McQueary lawsuit status hearing postponed

[San Francisco Chronicle 10/29/12 by Associated Press]

(8) 57-year old man claims he was abused 46 years ago when Jerry was 22 years old and he was 11.

“The man told KDKA Investigator Marty Griffin that he was sexually assaulted in the basement of a recreation center started by the Sandusky family in the late 1950s in Washington, Pa.

The facility is called the Brownson House.

The man, who has been interviewed by police, said he was sexually assaulted when he was 11-years-old. Jerry Sandusky was 22-years-old at the time.

“He started fondling and touching me. I’m 11-years-old, it felt good. I didn’t know any better. Next thing I know, he was raping me,” the victim said.

“He kept repeating ‘Real men don’t cry.’ I kept telling him how bad it hurt. My stomach was hurting awfully. He kept saying “Real men don’t cry’ until I finally pushed backwards and he fell away from me,” the victim said.

Sources tell the KDKA Investigators the 57-year-old man is the third man who claims he was sexually assaulted at the Brownson House more than 40 years ago.

No one with the Sandusky family is associated with the Brownson House at this time.

The alleged victim said Sandusky tried to assault him one more time, but he ran away.

“A weaker individual would be dead by now,” the victim said.

The victim also said he’s tried to commit suicide three times,

Griffin asked the victim why he’s coming forward now.

“Mainly, because I know I can’t be the only one out here. I may have been the first, but I can’t be the last,” said the victim.

The man hopes other victims will be able to get the help he is now receiving.”

Man Claims Sandusky Sexually Assaulted Him Over 40 Years Ago

[CBS Pittsburgh 10/29/12]

Update 54/November 15, 2012

(1)Graham Spanier, former PSU president has now been charged. Curley and Schultz have extra charges added.

Spanier has been charged “with perjury, obstruction, endangering the welfare of children and conspiracy.  Curley and Schultz face new charges of endangering the welfare of children,  obstruction and conspiracy.”

“Curley, 58, the athletic director on leave while he serves out the last year  of his contract, and Schultz, 63, who has retired as vice president for business  and finance, were charged a year ago with lying to the grand jury and with  failing to properly report suspect child abuse. Their trial is set for early  January in Harrisburg.

Spanier, 64, of State College, had been university president for 16 years  when he was forced out as president after Sandusky’s November 2011 arrest.

Prosecutors said all three knew of complaints involving Sandusky showering  with boys in 1998 and 2001.”

“Decisions by the three men were criticized in a detailed report commissioned  by Penn State and issued this summer by a group led by former FBI Director Louis  Freeh. The report concluded Spanier, Curley, Schultz and then-coach Joe Paterno  concealed Sandusky’s activities from the university trustees and “empowered” the  abuse by giving him access to school facilities and the prestige of his  university affiliation.

The Freeh report said the investigation turned up emails from 1998 in which  the administrators discussed the matter, including a May 5 email from Curley to  Schultz and Spanier, with “Joe Paterno” in the subject line. It read: “I have  touched bases with the coach. Keep us posted. Thanks.”

Spanier told the Freeh team that he believed in 2001 that the encounter  amounted to “horseplay,” although an email sent by him to Curley at that time  reflected a much more somber tone.

In that email, Spanier was reacting to a proposal by Curley in which they  would not report Sandusky to authorities but instead tell him he needed help and  that he could no longer bring children into Penn State facilities.

“The only downside for us is if the message isn’t `heard’ and acted upon, and  we then become vulnerable for not having reported it,” Spanier wrote in 2001.  “The approach you outline is humane and a reasonable way to proceed.”

Spanier’s lawyers have called the Freeh report a myth, and said he would have  acted in 1998, 2001 or any time if he knew a predator like Sandusky was on  campus.”

Former Penn State president charged in Sandusky case

[Fox News 11/1/12]

(2)Sandusky to Greene State Prison in isolation

“Jerry Sandusky will likely spend his remaining years in isolation at a maximum security prison that holds most of Pennsylvania’s death row inmates.

The former Penn State assistant football coach, sentenced on Oct. 9 to 30 to 60 years for a series of sickening child molestation offenses, was moved from a facility near Harrisburg, Pa., to Greene State Prison, tucked in the southwest corner of the state.”

“Sandusky will have little interaction with the prison’s other 1,800 inmates, who are monitored by a staff of 700, and will be assigned to a cell by himself, where he will eat all of his meals. He will be granted an hour of solitary exercise at an open area five days a week and be allowed to shower three days per week. On any occasion where he is permitted to leave his cell, he will receive extra security supervision and an escort, to guard him from harm from other prisoners.”

“Privileges such as a television and some personal items may be allowed depending on his record of behavior.”

“Any visits Sandusky receives from family, friends or his legal representatives will be non-contact, with a glass screen between the former coach and his visitors.”

Jerry Sandusky sent to a maximum security prison that houses death row inmates

[Yahoo Sports 10/31/12 by Martin Rogers]

(3)Jerry Asks for Bail MOney to Be Returned to Dottie
“The motion for the release of his bail was made by Joe Amendola to Senior Judge John Cleland and filed in county court Thursday.

Dottie Sandusky posted the bail — $50,000 plus collateral of $200,000 from their College Township home — in December, which allowed her husband to be released from the county jail after his preliminary hearing.”

Jerry Sandusky asks for return of $50K bail to his wife

[Star-Telegram 10/31/12]

(4)Curley and Schultz are arraigned “on charges of endangering the welfare of children, obstruction and conspiracy lasted about 10 minutes in a suburban Harrisburg courtroom. Bail was set at $50,000.”

“Spanier has been out of state at a relative’s funeral and will be arraigned on Wednesday, the judge said.

The three men were accused in a withering 39-page grand jury report that was made public Thursday of conspiring to conceal complaints about Sandusky, which gave him time and access to molest more boys before his arrest nearly a year ago.”

“In a pair of pretrial motions filed this week regarding their earlier charges, Curley and Schultz both focused on the role played by Cynthia Baldwin, the university’s then-chief counsel who accompanied them to their grand jury appearances. They argued charges should be dismissed, or grand jury testimony suppressed, because they believed Baldwin was representing them.

Baldwin’s grand jury testimony was a key piece of the evidence used to support the new charges.

“We were stunned, we were flabbergasted that she would testify against our clients,” said Curley’s lawyer, Caroline Roberto.

Farrell said Baldwin, a former state Supreme Court justice, “has betrayed her clients, her profession and testified falsely.”

Baldwin’s lawyer Charles De Monaco referred a reporter to a statement issued this summer in which he defended her, saying she “at all times fulfilled her obligations to the university and its agents.”

Penn State Officials Arraigned On New Charges

[Huffington Post 11/2/12 by Mark Scolforo]

(5)Spanier Arraigned and Free on $125,000 Bail

“Spanier said nothing to reporters before or after a court appearance near Harrisburg where he pleaded not guilty to the charges. Attorney Elizabeth Ainslie spoke only briefly as she left the courtroom, calling Attorney General Linda Kelly’s allegation that Spanier is part of a “conspiracy of silence” to hide Sandusky’s crimes “absolutely ridiculous.”

“Dr. Spanier was never given the chance to speak to this grand jury to give his side of the story, and we look forward to the chance to present his side of the story,” said Ainslie, part of a team of Philadelphia lawyers representing Spanier.”

“Spanier, 64, of State College, was charged Nov. 1 with one count of perjury, two counts of endangering the welfare of children and two counts of criminal conspiracy, all third-degree felonies punishable by up to seven years in prison and $15,000 in fines. He also is charged with one count of obstruction of justice and one count of criminal conspiracy, second-degree misdemeanors, and a summary count of failure to report suspected child abuse.”

“Wenner set a Nov. 16 hearing for prosecutors to prove they have enough evidence to support the charges, although the proceeding will likely be rescheduled for sometime in January, the judge said.”

“Curley and Schultz, who were arraigned on the new charges Friday, are free on $50,000 unsecured bail.”

Ex-Penn State president Spanier free on $125K bail

[The Morning Call 11/7/12 by Peter Hall]

(6) Governor Corbett will be the subject of newly-elected AG probe

Corbett: Not worried about attorney general-elect’s probe

[The Philadelphia Inquirer 11/11/12 by Angela Couloumbis]

(7)Sandusky asks for extension for postsentence motions
“Jerry Sandusky’s defense team has asked for an additional two weeks to file his appeal after lead counsel Norris Gelman suffered a heart attack, had subsequent open heart surgery and spent part of October recovering, unable to work.

According to court documents filed on Tuesday, the defense team asked for an extension through Nov. 16. Previously, Judge John Cleland gave the defense a deadline of Nov. 9 to file an post-sentence motions.

A hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m. on Dec. 10 in the Centre County Courthouse. ”

Sandusky Defense Requests Two Week Extension to File Post-Sentence Motions

[State College.com 11/13/12 by Laura Nichols]

Update 55/December 27, 2012

(1)PSU want McQueary Lawsuit delayed until after new year

“Penn State wants the case to be delayed until after January, when two former university administrators are scheduled to go to trial on charges of perjury and failure to properly report suspected child abuse.

McQueary testified this summer he saw Sandusky, the team’s former defensive coordinator, attack a boy inside athletic department showers in early 2001. He was a graduate assistant on the football team staff at the time.

Sandusky, 68, has begun serving a 30- to 60-year prison sentence for sexual abuse of 10 boys. He maintains his innocence and plans to appeal.

McQueary sued last month, saying the university mistreated him after Sandusky was arrested, resulting in distress, anxiety, humiliation and embarrassment. Penn State has not yet responded to the lawsuit.

McQueary claims that former school president Graham Spanier’s support for the two administrators, Tim Curley and Gary Schultz, made him a scapegoat and harmed his reputation as well as his ability to make a living as a football coach.

Spanier was charged recently, and additional charges were brought against Curley and Schultz, in what the attorney general’s office has described as a conspiracy of silence to cover up complaints about Sandusky acting improperly with young boys.

McQueary testified at Sandusky’s trial in June that he saw Sandusky in a sexually suggestive position with a boy in the shower, and heard a “skin-on-skin smacking sound.” For that incident, involving so-called Victim 2, Sandusky was convicted of indecent assault, unlawful contact with a minor, corruption of minors and endangering a child’s welfare. He was acquitted of the most serious charge, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse.

McQueary was placed on administrative leave a week after Sandusky, Curley and Schultz were arrested in November 2011, and in July learned he was no longer a university employee. He had been making $140,000 a year.

The lawsuit alleges he was dropped by the school because of his cooperation with the criminal investigation. He is seeking reinstatement, back pay and legal fees, among other things.

It’s unclear whether Schultz and Curley will go to trial in Harrisburg in January, given the additional charges and the new allegations against Spanier. A preliminary hearing for the three is currently scheduled for Dec. 13.

Gavin, assigned to the case by the state Supreme Court, was first elected a common pleas judge in Chester County in 1985, and took senior judge status in January 2011.”

Penn State to argue delay request in McQueary case

[USA Today 11/16/12 by Associated Press]

(2) Spanier is finally of PSU payroll after collecting $1.3 Million

Spanier off the Penn State payroll

[Trib Live 11/21/12 by Debra Erdley]

(3) Jerry Appeals Forfeiture of Pension

“Jerry  Sandusky is appealing the decision to revoke his Penn State pension, saying  that the law doesn’t support the action taken by the Pennsylvania State  Employees’ Retirement System.

Sandusky’s attorney Charles Benjamin wrote a five-page letter to the system’s  board, detailing the reasons why the former Penn State coach who was convicted  of child molestation should still be given his $59,000 per year pension, reports Fox News.”

Jerry Sandusky Appeals Forfeiture Of Pension/

[The Inquisitr 12/6/12]

(4) Jerry’s Team  of Lawyers gets extension for filing appeal

“In its ruling, the court gave defense attorney Karl Rominger until Dec. 26 to file a brief explaining his appeal of a protective order the trial judge imposed in June.”

State Superior Court grants Jerry Sandusky defense team extension to file appeal

[Centre Daily 12/11/12 by Matt Carroll]

(5) Cost to PSU

“Legal bills and crisis communications in the fallout of the Jerry Sandusky scandal have cost Penn State more than $23.5 million.”

Legal bills, PR for Jerry Sandusky scandal cost Penn State $23.5 million

[Centre Daily 12/11/12 by Mike Dawson]

(6) Evidentiary Hearing Granted

“The judge in the Jerry Sandusky child sexual abuse trial has granted the defense’s request for an evidentiary hearing on post-trial motions filed in the case.

Sandusky’s defense team is seeking the hearing to support claims it made in post-trial motions that the court erred in not giving them enough time to prepare for trial.

In court documents filed last week, defense attorney Joe Amendola requested the hearing before trial Judge John Cleland to present testimony and exhibits that Amendola said will support the defense’s claims.

Cleland granted that request Tuesday, setting an evidentiary hearing for 9:30 a.m. Jan. 10 in the Centre County Courthouse.

ndola said he believes testimony wouldn’t take longer than two hours.”

Jerry Sandusky granted evidentiary hearing on post-trial motions

[The Morning Call 12/19/12 by Matt Carroll]

(7) PSU Settlement Talks Extend to 2013

“Despite a 2012 deadline Penn State set to settle any lawsuits filed by men who were victims of Jerry Sandusky, the university will continue settlement talks in 2013, according to the Centre Daily Times.

According to the report, one of the attorneys said he believes both sides have made “excellent progress” so far.

There are at least 20 men who have filed claims against the university and there could ultimately be close to 30, depending on the corroboration of their stories, according to the Centre Daily Times.

“We are pleased with the progress so far and remain hopeful that the process will result in settlement of many of the civil cases so that the victims will not have to be drawn through the legal process,” Erickson said in a statement to the Centre Daily Times.”

Penn State to Talk Settlements with Jerry Sandusky Victims in 2013, Report Says

[State College.com 12/22/12 by Laura Nichols]

(8)From Prison, Jerry writes bizarre letter to reporter

Penn State child rapist Jerry Sandusky writes bizarre letter from prison saying he is trying to ‘learn and grow’

[Daily Mail 12/24/12]

Update 56/January 25, 2013

(1)Jerry appears in court on January 10,2013 to ask for new trial

“Before his trial started, lawyers for Jerry Sandusky argued they needed more time to prepare an adequate defense. The trial was pushed back once, but then refused any further delays.

But his defense team says it’s clear counsel could not come close to fulfilling their obligation after what they call a vast amount of material the protection turned over at the 11 hour.

Sandusky’s lawyers will also challenge testimony by a janitorial supervisor who told jurors a co-worker had seen Sandusky with a boy known as victim 8. That boy has never been identified.

And they’ll argue some of the charges were so general and non-specific, they should have been dismissed.

Sandusky arrived Wednesday at the Centre County Correctional Facility from the state prison in southwestern Pennsylvania, where he’s serving 30-to-60 years after being convicted on 45-of-48 counts of sexual abuse.”

Jerry Sandusky In Court As His Lawyers Ask For New Trial

[CBS Philadelphia 1/10/13 by Jim Melwert]

“The hearing drew another big media crowd to Bellefonte, but not a great deal of public interest. The stately courtroom had plenty of open seats, in contrast to Sandusky’s sentencing in October.

Sandusky’s small band of supporters — mostly family friends and church members — took up their usual benches behind the defense table.

Sandusky looked pale in his deep red Centre County Prison outfit but seemed in good spirits for a man up against a 30-year prison term and a world of public scorn.

He thanked his friends for coming with a smile and a wave and voiced hope to his wife, Dottie, that she would be allowed a visit before he is returned to the state prison in Greene County that now is his home.

Gelman based his legal fight on two major prongs: What the defense has termed a rush to trial by Judge John M. Cleland; and errors in Cleland’s charge to the jury.

On the timing issue, Gelman described an 11th-hour tsunami of documents from prosecutors that the defense had no time to sufficiently review, analyze and investigate before the June trial.

Trial attorney Joe Amendola said he received more than 6,000 pages of paper in the month before, along with dozens of computer disks holding photos and other images potentially pertinent to the case.

Coming in the midst of preparing legal arguments for pre-trial motions, Amendola said the coup de grace for him came when his office copy machine — used to guard against leaks of confidential material — broke down.

Amendola said he finally told his investigators to stop exploring things such as collaboration among Sandusky’s accusers, because he need to focus on trial preparation.

“In the end,” he said, “we didn’t have time to be thorough.”

Prosecutors had no sympathy, arguing to Cleland that Amendola deserves no credit for creating a forest of information requests — most of which turned out irrelevant to the case.

Fighting back with Amendola’s own words, they also got him to concede that even now — six months after trial — he hasn’t found any evidence that would have changed his case or strategy.

Chief Deputy Attorney General Frank Fina noted all the evidence Amendola received from the Commonwealth fit in four large cardboard bankers’ boxes.

“Mr. Amendola admitted that only one of those boxes was material to the case that was tried,” Fina contended.

“Anybody can go through a box of information adequately and prepare for trial,” he added. “And as you saw Mr. Amendola did that and he did a very good, effective job.”

The defense, however, insisted there was too much information too late to know exactly what they had as the case was ready to start.

“You can’t force a lawyer to trial when he’s flying blind,” Gelman said. “He was unable to say [that he was fully prepared] prior to the trial,” and that effectively denied Sandusky his right to adequate representation.

Most legal observers consider it unlikely that Cleland — who rejected at least three defense requests for a continuance prior to the trial — will reverse himself on the issue.

But the defense has at least preserved it for other courts in later appeals.

The second major issue raised Thursday dealt with Cleland’s charge to jurors.

Gelman argued current Pennsylvania standard is for jurors to be told they can consider a failure to file a prompt report of a crime in their evaluation of a victims’ credibility, and in fact whether a crime even occurred at all.

In most of the 10 cases at the heart of Sandusky’s trial, he noted, the child victims came forward after they were first approached by police investigators, often more than 10 years after the assaults occurred.

Cleland noted the importance of the point varies from case to case. But Gelman argued the judge erred in not putting the issue out there for the jurors to consider, especially in a case like this that hinged so heavily on the credibility of the victims’ testimony.

Prosecutors countered the so-called “prompt reporting” instruction is more relevant in a case where there is only one victim making allegations.

But its weight diminishes, Fina argued, in a case with multiple witnesses from different time periods describing very consistent patterns of behavior by Sandusky, plus independent eyewitnesses to two other assaults.

“That significantly changes it,” Fina said, adding the case’s timeline was comprehensively covered throughout all phases of the trial. Jurors had ample opportunity, he said, to apply their common sense to all the elements of the case.

In fact, advocates for child sexual abuse victims have long argued that delays in reporting are very common in these cases.

“The reality is a delayed report is normal in child sexual assault cases,” said Kristen Houser, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape who attended the appeal hearing.

Conditions in the Sandusky case converged to make that even more likely, Houser said, from the fact that these boys were making their accusations against a sports-world celebrity, to the sometimes-realized fears of homophobic taunting by peers at school.

Houser said it is an area where the state’s judiciary needs to update jury instruction language, but added she doesn’t believe it will affect Sandusky’s case in part because state law itself now permits the filing of charges in child sexual abuse cases long after victims have reached adulthood.

Cleland made no rulings from the bench Thursday, but is expected to decide the defense motions this winter.”

Sandusky appeal opens with focus on ‘rush to trial’

[The Patriot News 1/10/13 by CHARLES THOMPSON and  DAVID WENNER]

(2) PSU challenges McQueary $4 Million lawsuit

“Penn State is challenging former assistant coach Mike McQueary’s whistleblower lawsuit, and the university filed court papers Tuesday asking the judge to dismiss it with prejudice.

Penn State attorney Nancy Conrad wrote in the suit that McQueary was not defamed when former university President Graham Spanier issued a statement in November 2011 in support of then-administrators Tim Curley and Gary Schultz.

Conrad also wrote that McQueary’s claims were not specific enough for a whistleblower suit.

McQueary, who as a graduate assistant in 2001 saw Jerry Sandusky in a shower with a young boy, testified to the grand jury investigating Sandusky, Sandusky’s trial and a court hearing for Curley and Schultz.

McQueary claimed in his suit that Penn State let him go because he cooperated with authorities.

Curley also claimed that Curley and Schultz misrepresented how they would respond to his report about the shower incident. Conrad wrote that the alleged broken promise cannot be considered sufficient proof to support the claim.

(4) Victim 6 sues PSU, Second Mile and Jerry Sandusky in Federal Court

“Victim 6 sued Tuesday in federal court in Philadelphia, claiming Sandusky’s behavior was “ratified” by The Second Mile and Penn State and that the organizations acted with reckless indifference to his rights.

Victim 6 testified that Sandusky, calling himself “the Tickle Monster,” grabbed him inside a university shower in March 1998. His mother’s complaint triggered a police investigation but no charges.”

Victim 6 sues Jerry Sandusky, Penn State and The Second Mile in federal court

[The Patriot News 1/22/13 by Associated Press]

Update 57/March 5, 2013

(1) January 30, 2013-no new trial for Jerry. He will appeal again.

“Judge John Cleland on Wednesday issued a 27-page order that said Sandusky’s  lawyers conceded that their post-trial review turned up no material that would  have changed their trial strategy. He also has rejected post-sentencing motions  regarding jury instructions, hearsay testimony and other matters.”

“Sandusky lawyer Norris Gelman says the decision means the defense will appeal to  mid-level Superior Court within the next 30 days.”

No new trial for Jerry Sandusky

[FOX News 1/30/13 by Associated Press]

(2)H. Geoffrey Moulton Jr., an associate professor at Widener University School of Law and a one-time first assistant in the U.S. Attorney’s office in Philadelphia is named to review the investigation.

“As special investigator, Moulton in 1993 led a widely-praised investigation into the controversial federal raid on the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, for the U.S. Treasury Department, which has oversight of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

Kane, in a press release issued this afternoon, said Moulton will report directly to her and when his work is complete, “my office will make these findings available to the public.”

The appointment signals the start of work on one of Kane’s central campaign promises to voters last year: Finding out why the investigation into the former Penn State defensive coordinator sexual predations took more than two-and-a-half years to complete.

Kane promised “a comprehensive and independent examination of the facts surrounding the handling of the Sandusky investigation,” and the former Lackawanna County assistant district attorney rode that pledge to the first-ever victory by a Democrat since the attorney general’s office became an elective office in 1980.”

“Kane’s supporters and staffers say there are no preconceived notions about the outcome of the review.

“The reality is there are legitimate questions that people all over the state have been asking for months, and they have a right to know the facts,” Mellody said last week.

Former Acting Attorney General Walter Cohen noted this week the special deputy, at the start, will likely be relying primarily on the cooperation and good will of the Sandusky investigators, many of whom have since retired or left the AG’s office during the transition.

Kane’s investigator would not have the power to compel testimony before the grand jury, for example, without seeking specific approval to start a case from the grand jury’s supervising judge, Cohen said.

If extreme wrongdoing is found, Kane has left herself the latitude to take that direction.

But that is a decision for another day.

Kane herself told The New York Times last week she will accept whatever conclusion the special prosecutor reaches. “I am not afraid of at the very end, after every stone has been turned, to tell everyone: ‘Nothing went wrong here,’” the newspaper quoted her as saying.”

Jerry Sandusky investigation: Pa. attorney general names special prosecutor to review the case

[The Patriot News 2/4/13 by Charles Thompson]

(3)Another new victim has come forward claiming abuse

“Centre County authorities aren’t releasing many details, so far as the latest alleged victim who has claimed he was abused by convicted child molester Jerry Sandusky, according to GantDaily.com news partner WJAC-TV.

Several sources have confirmed the alleged victim who is filing the complaint is not from Centre County. However, he claims the alleged abuse occurred in Centre County and doesn’t have any ties to the Second Mile.

According to WJAC-TV, the alleged victim’s claims have triggered a new investigation with county administrators. County administrators are wondering how many more Sandusky-related expenses they’ll incur besides transporting him to court.

WJAC-TV also reported that new child abuse claims against Sandusky had been presented to the statewide grand jury last year after he was jailed. And, Penn State has confirmed it’s negotiating with as many as 25 alleged victims in settling civil suits”
WJACTV Another alleged victim of Jerry Sandusky Comes Forward/

[WJAC TV 2/6/13]

(4) Sue Paterno takes issue with Freeh report and writes a letter to Penn State Letterman. The letter can be seen in pdf form at this link

Sue Paterno opens up about Jerry Sandusky scandal in letter to Penn State letterman

[Fox News Insider 2/8/13 by Greta Van Susteren]

(5)Paterno Family releases their findings

“A report commissioned by Joe Paterno’s family says the late coach did nothing wrong in his handling of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal and portrays Paterno as the victim of a “rush to injustice” created by former FBI director Louis Freeh’s investigation of the case for Penn State.

The family’s critique, released Sunday, argues that the findings of the Freeh report published last July were unsupported by the facts.

Former U.S. Attorney General Dick Thornburgh, one of the experts assembled by the family’s lawyer to review Freeh’s report last year to Penn State, called the document fundamentally flawed and incomplete.

Freeh’s report reached “inaccurate and unfounded findings related to Mr. Paterno and its numerous process-oriented deficiencies was a rush to injustice and calls into question” the investigation’s credibility, Thornburgh was quoted as saying.

In a statement released Sunday through a spokesman, Freeh defended his work.

“I stand by our conclusion that four of the most powerful people at Penn State failed to protect against a child sexual predator harming children for over a decade,” he said.

Paterno’s family released what it billed as an exhaustive response to Freeh’s work, based on independent analyses, on the website paterno.com.

“We conclude that the observations as to Joe Paterno in the Freeh report are unfounded, and have done a disservice not only to Joe Paterno and the university community,” the family’s report said, “but also to the victims of Jerry Sandusky and the critical mission of educating the public on the dangers of child sexual victimization.”

Freeh’s findings also implicated former administrators in university president Graham Spanier, athletic director Tim Curley and retired vice president Gary Schultz. Less than two weeks after the Freeh report was released in July, the NCAA acted with uncharacteristic speed in levying massive sanctions against the football program for the scandal.

“Taking into account the available witness statements and evidence, it is more reasonable to conclude that, in order to avoid the consequences of bad publicity, the most powerful leaders at Penn State University — Messrs. Spanier, Schultz, Paterno and Curley — repeatedly concealed critical facts relating to Sandusky’s child abuse” from authorities, trustees and the university community, Freeh wrote in releasing the report.

The former administrators have vehemently denied the allegations. So, too, has Paterno’s family, though it reserved more extensive comment until its own report was complete.

The counter-offensive began in earnest this weekend. The family’s findings said that Paterno:
— Never asked or told anyone not to investigate an allegation made against Sandusky 12 years ago, Saturday, Feb. 9, 2001.

— Never asked or told former administrators not to report the 2001 allegation.

— And never asked or told anyone not to discuss or hide information reported by graduate assistant Mike McQueary about the 2001 allegation.

“Paterno reported the information to his superior(s) pursuant to his understanding of university protocol and relied upon them to investigate and report as appropriate,” the family’s analysis said.

Paterno’s widow, Sue, broke her silence Friday in a letter to hundreds of former players informing them of the report’s impending release. “The Freeh report failed and if it is not challenged and corrected, nothing worthwhile will have come from these tragic events,” she wrote.

“I had expected to find Louis Freeh had done his usual thorough and professional job,” Thornburgh said in a video posted on paterno.com. “I found the report to be inaccurate in some respects, speculative and unsupported to the record compiled … in short, fundamentally flawed as to the determinations made to the role — if any — Mr. Paterno played in any of this.”

Freeh was brought in to conduct an independent investigation of the school’s response to allegations and find any shortcomings in governance and compliance to make sure failures don’t happen again, Penn State said in a statement Sunday. Freeh made 119 recommendations to strengthen policies, and the majority have been implemented, according to the school.

University trustees and leaders have been criticized by some dissatisfied alumni, ex-players and community residents for their handling of Paterno’s dismissal, the Freeh report and the sanctions.

“It is understandable and appreciated that people will draw their own conclusions and opinions from the facts uncovered in the Freeh report,” the school said.

Freeh, in his report, said his team conducted 430 interviews and analyzed over 3.5 million emails and documents. The former federal judge said evidence showed Paterno was involved in an “active agreement to conceal” and his report cited email exchanges, which referenced Paterno, between administrators about allegations against Sandusky in 1998 and 2001.

According to Thornburgh’s findings, Freeh’s report relied on about 30 documents, including three notes authored by Paterno, and 17 emails. Four emails referenced Paterno — none sent by the octogenarian coach who notoriously shunned modern electronic technology.

Sandusky, 69, was sentenced to at least 30 years in prison in October after being convicted last summer of 45 criminal counts. Prosecutors said assaults occurred off and on campus, including the football building.

His arrest in November 2011 triggered the turmoil that led to Paterno’s firing days later. Under pressure, Spanier left as president the same day. Curley was placed on administrative leave, while Schultz retired.

Spanier, Curley and Schultz are awaiting trial on obstruction and conspiracy, among other charges. They have maintained their innocence.

Critics have said that Freeh’s team didn’t speak with key figures including Curley, Schultz and Paterno, who died in January 2012 at age 85. The authors of the emails referenced in Freeh’s report, which included Curley and Schultz, were not interviewed by Freeh, the family’s analysis said.

Spanier spoke to Freeh six days before the report was released July 12.

“They missed so many key people. They didn’t interview most of the key players, with the exception of President Spanier, who at the last minute we brought in and interviewed at a time when frankly the report … was pretty well all prepared,” Thornburgh said on the video.

Freeh said he respected the family’s right to conduct a campaign to “shape the legacy of Joe Paterno,” but called the critique self-serving. Paterno’s attorney was contacted for an interview with the coach, he said, and Paterno spoke with a reporter and biographer before his death but not Freeh’s team.

Curley and Schultz also declined numerous requests for interviews, Freeh said. They have been facing criminal charges since November 2011.

Freeh on Sunday cited grand jury testimony by Paterno in 2011 in which Paterno said a graduate assistant relayed to him the 2001 allegation against Sandusky of a “sexual nature” with a child.

He referred to a key point in the July report in which he said Spanier, Schultz and Curley drew up a plan that called for reporting Sandusky to the state Department of Public Welfare in 2001. But Curley later said in an email that he changed his mind “after giving it more thought and talking it over with Joe,” according to Freeh’s findings.

Said Freeh on Sunday: “These men exhibited a striking lack of empathy for Sandusky’s victims by failing to inquire as to their safety and well-being, especially by not even attempting to determine the identity of the child” in the 2001 allegation.

The Paterno family report said Freeh chose not to “present alternative, more plausible, conclusions” about Paterno’s actions. Their attorney, Wick Sollers, responded Sunday that Freeh didn’t take the time to read the family’s critique, or address accusations of procedural shortcomings.

“A failure to consider the facts carefully is exactly the problem our expert analysis highlights,” Sollers said. “Everyone, including Mr. Freeh, should take the time to study this report.”

Sue Paterno had directed Sollers, to review Freeh’s report and her husband’s actions. Sollers brought in Thornburgh, as well as former FBI profiler and special agent Jim Clemente, described as a child molestation and behavioral expert.

Also brought in was Dr. Fred Berlin, a psychologist from Johns Hopkins Hospital and School of Medicine whose profile lists him as the founder of the Johns Hopkins Sexual Disorders Clinic.

The analysis included interviews, including of Paterno before his death, as well as a review of documents and testimony and “information from our access to the lawyers for other Penn State administrators.”

The Paterno family’s analysis said Freeh’s report turned into a platform for scapegoating Paterno rather than seizing on an opportunity to educate about identifying child sex abuse victims, and ignored “decades of expert research and behavioral analysis regarding the appropriate way to understand and investigate a child victimization case.”

It said expert analysis showed Sandusky “fooled qualified child welfare professionals and law enforcement, as well as laymen inexperienced and untrained in child sexual victimization like Joe Paterno.” The coach respected Sandusky as an assistant, but knew little about Sandusky’s personal life, the analysis said, though Freeh’s report “missed that they disliked each other personally, had very little in common outside work, and did not interact much if at all socially.”

Actions by entities outside of Penn State were not a focus for Freeh’s review. “This was an internal investigation into Penn State’s response … and that is how the University has utilized the report,” the school said.

Penn State removed a bronze statue of Paterno outside Beaver Stadium on July 22. The next day, the NCAA in levying sanctions said Freeh’s report revealed “an unprecedented failure of institutional integrity leading to a culture in which a football program was held in higher esteem.”

The NCAA improperly relied on that report and never identified a rules infraction “based on Sandusky’s crimes, much less an infraction by Penn State that implicated the NCAA’s jurisdiction and core mission of ensuring competitive balance,” the Paterno family report said.

An NCAA spokeswoman said the organization stood by its previous statements and declined comment Sunday.

A four-year bowl ban and steep scholarship cuts were included among the sanctions, while 111 wins between 1998 and 2011 under Paterno were vacated. It meant Paterno no longer holds the record for most wins by a major college coach.”
Paterno family report attacks finding of child sex abuse cover-up

[King 5 2/10/13 by Associated Press]

(6) PSU weighing settlement offers with 28 claimants

“The attorney that the university brought in to handle this case, Ken Feinberg, spoke to the AP and said that he gave “Penn State administrators, lawyers and members of the board of trustees” the offers this past Friday in Philadelphia.

The AP also passes along that a university spokesperson declined comment on the situation.

Obviously, this means the next move is on the university. Penn State could accept the offers, but that is not typically how these negotiations work. More likely, the school will answer with some sort of counter offer as the two sides move closer to something they can agree upon.

Of course, a settlement is no guarantee. If the two sides do not reach some sort of agreement, the lawsuit will proceed.

Then again, no matter what happens with these settlements, Penn State still appears to be staring at some sort of lawsuit. Feinberg, who is working with 28 claimants, reportedly stated that “not all claimants have made a settlement demand.””

Penn State Reportedly Weighing Settlement Offers from Jerry Sandusky’s Victims

[Bleacher Report 2/11/13 by Richard Langford]

(7)Legal cost for PSU reaches $27+ Million

“The latest totals are in: As of Nov. 30, Penn State has spent $27,663,423 paying public relations firms, lawyers and other expenses – that do not include the $60 million fine or unknown amounts in civil litigation — dealing with the fallout from the Jerry Sandusky child sexual abuse scandal.

University officials update the totals on a regular basis as they become available, which generally takes about 40-45 days, per Penn State’s ‘Progress‘ website.

The costs are expected to be reimbursed by Penn State’s insurer, and the fees are a separate entity from the $60 million fine agreed to by university and the NCAA as part of its sanctions. Penn State paid the first installment of five $12 million payments into an escrow fund on Dec. 20.

Those payments will not be distributed until a lawsuit is settled filed by Sen. Jake Corman (R-34), who is attempting to keep all of the fine money within Pennsylvania.

Totals can also be found on Penn State’s ‘Progress’ website and are as follows:

Board of Trustees – Internal Investigation and Crisis Communications: $13,084,105

• Freeh Sporkin & Sullivan

• Reed Smith LLP

• Ketchum

• Kekst and Company Inc.

• Daniel J. Edelman, Inc.

• Domus Inc

• The Academy Group

University Legal Services/Defense: $7,478,235

• Saul Ewing

• Duane Morris

• Lanny J. Davis and Associates

• Jenner & Block LLPML Strategies

• Lee, Green & Reiter Inc.

• McQuaide Blasko

• Document Technologies, Inc.

Externally Initiated Investigations: $1,302,838

• Margolis & Healy

• Lightfoot, Franklin, White LCC

• Buchanan Ingersoll

Indemnified Persons’ Legal Defense*: (Schultz, Curley, Spanier): $3,955,718

• Farrell & Reisinger

• Caroline M. Roberto

• Vaira & Riley

• Schnader Harrison, Segal & Lewis LLP

• Klink & Co.

• Corporate Security and Investigation

• Bix-X-Bit, LLC

• Gover, Perry, & Shore

• Gentile Meinert Assoc

• Fox Rothschild LLP

• General Employees’ Defense

Other Institutional Expenses: $1,842,527

Total as of Nov. 30: $27,663,423”

Penn State Legal, PR Costs Dealing With Jerry Sandusky Scandal Reach $27 Million In Nov

[State College.com 2/15/13 by Laura Nichols]

(8) On February 21, 2013, Jerry again appeals

“The notice of appeal officially was filed Thursday by Sandusky’s attorneys, Joseph Amendola and Norris Gelman, less than a month after trial judge John M. Cleland denied a previous bid for a new trial.

In a 27-page ruling on Jan. 30, Cleland denied all of points in the multi-pronged motion, including claims that Sandusky’s attorneys hadn’t had sufficient time to prepare for trial.

Sandusky, long revered in State College, Pa., as the Nittany Lions defensive coach and as the founder of a charity for troubled youth, fell from glory in 2011 as allegations surfaced that he had molested at least 10 boys over a 15-year period. The news rocked the nation and tarnished the reputation of Penn State and its longtime head football coach, Joe Paterno.

Although the recently filed documents don’t make any claims that weren’t mentioned in the post-sentencing motion Cleland denied last month, Gelman told the Los Angeles Times that Sandusky and the defense team are “hoping for a good outcome.”

Asked what he thought would be different this time, Gelman responded: “I hope to do a better job.”

Sandusky, who maintains his innocence, was convicted last year on 45 counts of sexual abuse of a minor and was sentenced to up to 60 years in state prison.

In a related case, Penn State officials on Thursday asked a county judge to dismiss the whistleblower and defamation case lodged against them in October by former graduate assistant Michael McQueary, who testified that he saw Sandusky molest a boy.”

Jerry Sandusky tries to appeal jury conviction — again

[LA Times 2/21/13 by Marisa Gerber]

Update 58/April 18, 2013

(1)Jerry Sandusky Victim 6 lawyers oppose request from Penn State to stay civil lawsuit [Centre Daily 3/6/13 by Mike Dawson] says “The civil lawyers for Victim 6 in the Jerry Sandusky child abuse case are challenging Penn State’s request to put his lawsuit on hold, saying the young man has already “suffered a delay of justice of more than a decade.”

The young man known as Victim 6 testified this past summer that Sandusky showered with him after a workout in 1998, and in January, the young man’s lawyers filed a federal lawsuit against Penn State, The Second Mile charity and Sandusky. He is called John Doe 6 in the suit.

Howard Janet, one of the lawyers, wrote in court papers filed Friday that he wants a hearing in front of a judge over the stay that Penn State and The Second Mile, the charity Sandusky founded, are seeking.

Their “actions have created a personal tragedy in the life of John Doe 6, and on a larger scale, impacted an entire network of abuse victims,” Janet wrote. “It is time for this matter to move forward to allow the healing process to begin.”

Lawyers for Penn State and The Second Mile wanted the stay, saying the ongoing criminal cases against former university administrators accused of covering up the 1998 Penn State shower incident and another one in 2001 would be prejudiced if the civil case went forward

The lawyers said ex-president Graham Spanier, former athletic director Tim Curley and retired senior vice president Gary Schultz are likely to be “critical witnesses” in the civil suit. The lawyers said the cases against the men, which include counts of perjury, obstruction of justice, conspiracy, child endangerment and failure to report abuse, will not see a trial until 2014.

Janet said such a delay is not in his client’s best interests, and an issue surrounding former Penn State lawyer Cynthia Baldwin might go into appeals. Baldwin heard the leaders’ grand jury testimony and later testified against them to the grand jury, and the men’s defense lawyers want to keep her from taking the stand.

Janet criticized Penn State for asking for a stay, saying that will keep his client from seeking justice against the university and the charity.

“True to form, PSU now seeks to further delay John Doe 6 from proceeding in (c)ourt and, most importantly, to begin the healing process,” he wrote.

Janet said Penn State and The Second Mile should have resources to devote to the discovery process and that they already have “an uncommon mastery of the facts and legal issues in dispute.” Penn State even hired former FBI director Louis Freeh to investigate the matter, Janet said.

Kristen Houser, a spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape, said childhood sex abuse has potential to disrupt survivors’ lives, income and professional goals, and a survivor’s wanting to proceed quickly is “perfectly reasonable.”

“It’s difficult and painful to have the same entities that you already feel have harmed you attempt to control the process,” she said.

Penn State has won stays on five civil cases filed by men claiming they were abused by Sandusky, the convicted pedophile who is in solitary confinement serving a state prison sentence of 30 to 60 years.

However, the university was denied a stay on the whistle-blower lawsuit filed by Mike McQueary, who testified at Sandusky’s trial that he saw the former assistant football coach and young boy in a sexual situation. McQueary’s contract was not renewed at the end of June, and he sued to recover lost wages and punitive damages.

It is not known if Janet’s client is among the 28 or so claimants who are negotiating with Penn State through their mediator, attorney Kenneth Feinberg. Feinberg and a spokeswoman for Janet on Tuesday declined to comment.

Feinberg said the settlement process continues and settlements may be reached by the end of this month. ”

(2) Jerry Sandusky finally served lawsuit by alleged victim[Centre Daily 3/15/13] says “Jerry Sandusky finally has been served in prison with a lawsuit brought by one of his alleged victims.

Notice was filed Wednesday in U.S. Middle District Court that an official at the state prison in Greene County, where the former Penn State defensive coordinator is serving a 30- to 60-year sentence, had accepted service for him.

Don Bailey, a former state auditor general who represents the victim identified only as John Doe, had accused in court documents the Department of Corrections of hindering service of the civil complaint that was filed five months ago.

A corrections spokeswoman denied this, saying inmates regularly are served with legal documents.

The plaintiff in this case alleges he was sexually assaulted by Sandusky in a swimming pool on the Penn State campus in 2003.

Although Sandusky now has been served, there likely will be no activity in the case until criminal charges are concluded against former Penn State president Graham Spanier, retired senior vice president Gary Schultz and retired athletic director Tim Curley.

Senior Judge William W. Caldwell granted the university’s motion for a stay. Penn State is among the defendants along with the three facing criminal charges, The Second Mile, Edgewater Psychiatric Center, the State College law firm of McQuaide Blasko and one of its former lawyers, Wendell Courtney.

Edgewater, which is in Harrisburg, is a defendant because the plaintiff claims it referred him to The Second Mile, the charity Sandusky founded. McQuaide Blasko represented Penn State.”