Witness says Sandusky told him: 'It's your turn'

BELLEFONTE, Pa. — A boy from Clinton County, Pa., who once thought of Jerry Sandusky as a role model froze with fear the first time Sandusky sexually abused him, the young man said during tearful and agonizing testimony Tuesday morning.

"After rubbing and cracking my back and rubbing his hands down the back of my shorts, and then blowing on my stomach ... he put," the young man known as alleged victim No. 1 said, tearing up, then shooting an angry glare at Sandusky before finishing: "He put his mouth on my privates.

"I didn't know what to do."

The powerful testimony - as the young man's civil attorneys described it later - went from teary as he described to the jury the details of the alleged sexual abuse that started with touching and escalated to more than 25 allegations of oral sex before he broke off contact and contacted authorities, who launched the investigation.

But on cross-examination from defense attorney Joe Amendola, the young man was more confident and invigorated, fighting off being grilled by Amendola about inconsistencies in what he told authorities and the grand jury about the alleged abuse. At one point, he clenched his fists to his face and shouted at the attorney, "Oh, my God, it's hard enough for me to tell these folks of the jury what happened."

The young man was the second of the eight known alleged victims expected to testify. Alleged victim No. 4, a 28-year-old from Centre County, Pa., detailed Monday abuse he suffered over more than four years. The 28-year-old never backed down from his story, saying Sandusky treated him as "his girlfriend" and sent him "creepy love letters" while sexually abusing him in Penn State shower rooms.

The young man from Clinton County, who is 18 and graduated from high school just last week, testified that one of the last times he saw Sandusky was during a street encounter after school. Sandusky had shown up outside his school, followed his school bus and then confronted him about the two drifting apart. Sandusky ended up getting into an argument with the boy's mother and his grandfather came over as a precaution, he testified.

It wasn't long after, he said, he subtly asked his mom about searching the Megan's Law website to see if Sandusky was on it. The mother then went to school officials and police, he said.

Jessica Dersham, the caseworker who handled the report of abuse from a school official, also testified for the prosecution Tuesday.

Dersham said Sandusky came in for an interview and denied the allegations but admitted to blowing on the boy's stomach and not being able to say if he touched him below the waist. To the caseworker, that signaled child abuse, she testified.

The testimony from alleged victim No. 1 and four corroborating witnesses heard Tuesday seemed heavily slanted in the prosecution's favor. The caseworker said she firmly believes Sandusky abused him when he was younger.

The young man testified that the physical contact started with Sandusky putting his hand on the boy's leg while driving, but the young man, then 11 or 12, didn't think anything of it. The alleged abuse began while the boy started sleeping at Sandusky's house, he said, with a bedtime routine where Sandusky would crack and rub his back, kiss his forehead, kiss his lips and lift up his shirt to blow on his stomach as one might to do make a baby laugh, he testified.

In the summers, he'd end up staying at Sandusky's house for days at a time. The bedtime routine was the same, he testified, but progressed further.

"He sat there and looked at me and said something along the lines of 'it's your turn' and he made me," he stopped, covering his face with his hands, "he made me put my mouth on his privates."

On cross-examination, Amendola went after the young man's credibility by pointing out inconsistent statements in his story.

For one, Amendola pointed out that the young man's first report of alleged abuse said the acts had happened in Sandusky's home as well as hotels. But on the witness stand Monday, the young man said the alleged abuse happened only in a basement bedroom in Sandusky's College Township home.

Amendola also focused on the number of times the boy told authorities he was allegedly abused. According to grand jury transcripts Amendola was using as a reference, the young man told the grand jury he performed oral sex on Sandusky once. But according to a police documents, Amendola said, he told state police investigator Scott Rossman it was more often.

The questions were rephrased and continued, but the young man grew angrier - even at one point mouthing to prosecutors to make it stop, but they never objected.

The young man said he had talked to a number of people about the alleged abuse, was stressed and didn't open up to people he just met right away.

He said he testified to the grand jury three times and said that what he was saying in court Tuesday was the truth.

Amendola also questioned him about his being represented by two civil attorneys and asked if he told anyone he was going to get a nice house and be driving a nice car. The young man insisted that was not his motivation for coming forward, and said he isn't thinking about making money by filing a lawsuit.

"I just wanted him to stop," he told lead prosecutor Joseph McGettigan III on redirect examination.

(EDITORS: BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM)

Joe Miller, an elementary wrestling coach in Clinton County, Pa., was driving home one night in December 2006 or 2007 when his son realized he left some of his wrestling gear back at the school.

Miller, a prosecution witness called Tuesday to corroborate alleged victim No. 1's testimony, testified he turned around, went in to get the gear and noticed that a light was on in the weight room.

There, he said, he found Sandusky and the boy lying face to face on their sides.

"They were both a little startled that I came in," Miller said.

Miller said Sandusky turned to him, propped his head up with one hand and had the other on the boy and explained they were trying out wrestling moves.

The young man's testimony about the incident was similar Tuesday, except that he told the prosecution that Sandusky "hopped up like rabbit" after Miller walked in.

But the young man said the incident happened during the daylight and even went as far as deriding Amendola for questioning him on the time of the day he remembered.

Miller testified he wasn't suspicious about the encounter, even though no one was supposed to be in that building that late. He said he quickly dispelled the thought of something bad.

"I had the utmost respect in the world for Jerry," Miller said.

As for the young man, he said, "It felt kind of like a relief that nothing was going to happen in school."

The young man testified that his mother thought it was strange Sandusky kept calling her son so much and she set up an appointment with a guidance counselor at Central Mountain High School. The counselor asked if Sandusky had done anything to her son.

But it didn't go anywhere, he said.

After he "broke down and cried" and said Sandusky had done something wrong to him, school officials said his family "needed to think about it" because Sandusky "has a heart of gold and wouldn't do something like that.'

The witness testified: "They didn't believe me."

Dersham, the caseworker with Clinton County Children and Youth Services, received the referral to investigate a report of "inappropriate conduct" by Sandusky.

She and a CYS attorney interviewed Sandusky in January 2009. Amendola said Sandusky wanted to defend himself.

Dersham read details from her report when prompted by Amendola on cross-examination:

The young man told a school official that Sandusky touched him over his clothes, but Sandusky denied there was anything sexual.

He told her Sandusky slept in the same bed as the boy during overnight trips, but Sandusky denied it.

The boy reported that Sandusky got him out of class, but Sandusky denied that, saying he got the boy out of a school assembly to talk about him helping with a Second Mile event.

(END OPTIONAL TRIM)

Sandusky admitted to the back-cracking and other touching and hugging, but not sexual acts.

Sandusky said he wanted to be involved in the boy's life because he didn't know his father and thought of him as a son.

There were no references to oral sex in the CYS report, case worker Dersham said when asked by Amendola.

But on redirect examination, prosecutor McGettigan characterized Sandusky's behavior as that of an immature teen, not an adult. He asked Dersham if anything Sandusky said during the interview in 2009 changed her mind.

"No, nothing changed my opinion," she told the prosecution.

The prosecution showed a photo of gifts Sandusky gave the young man, including golf clubs and dress clothes. McGettigan wanted to show they were more examples of gifts from Sandusky to try to buy trust, as the prosecution presented Monday the elaborate gifts that alleged victim No. 4 said Sandusky gave him.

On cross-examination Tuesday, Amendola got alleged victim No. 1 to say the dress clothes were for church, which he said he attended with Sandusky and his wife, Dottie.

But to counter that, McGettigan spun the gift of clothing away from an act of kindness, asking if Sandusky forced the young man to engage in sex acts the nights before taking him to church.

The young man answered yes.

Amendola grilled the young man about a report he made in October 2010 to school officials that someone dressed in a dark suit confronted him in the bathroom of his school.

The young man said the other man was from The Second Mile but what he supposedly said wasn't a subject of questioning.

"He walked right through the front door," he said. "I looked right at him when I was changing classes."

The young man swore it happened, but Amendola told him school officials determined there was no evidence of it.

It's possible Amendola will call school officials to testify about the investigation.

)2012 Centre Daily Times (State College, Pa.)

Visit the Centre Daily Times (State College, Pa.) at www.centredaily.com

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