Ex-coach testifies in Sandusky trial
Allegation in Sandusky trial central to abuse case
Former Penn State assistant football coach Mike McQueary testified Tuesday that he saw Jerry Sandusky engaging in what appeared to be sex with a boy in a locker room 11 years ago.
BELLEFONTE, Pa. — A Penn State assistant football coach, a central witness in the child sex-abuse case against Jerry Sandusky, gave graphic testimony Tuesday about an alleged sexual encounter between the now-retired football coach and a boy in a locker room shower in 2001.
Michael McQueary, on leave from his job, said he entered the football locker room and heard the “rhthymic slapping sounds of skin on skin” coming from a shower stall where, through a mirror, he glimpsed a naked Sandusky with the front of his body pressed against the rear of a child who McQueary estimated to be as young as 10.
McQueary said he stepped toward the shower and saw Sandusky in an “extremely sexual” position behind the boy. The former Penn State quarterback said he slammed a locker door in an attempt to break up the encounter.
Asked why he left the locker room immediately, McQueary said: “I wasn’t thinking 100% right. It was more than my brain could handle.”
The boy involved in the alleged shower incident has never been found.
The allegation is perhaps the most explosive in the case against the retired Penn State defensive assistant. Criticism of Penn State’s response to the initial report by McQueary led to the ousters of university president Graham Spanier and legendary football coach Joe Paterno. The alleged incident is at the heart of perjury charges against Penn State athletic director Tim Curley and retired senior vice president Gary Schultz. Both are accused of lying to a grand jury when they said McQueary’s had not mentioned sexual activity.
Curley, now on leave, and Schultz have denied any wrongdoing.
McQueary’s testimony followed the emotional appearance of the alleged victim who launched the inquiry that resulted in 52 criminal counts against Sandusky.
Choking back tears, the witness, now 18, recounted how Sandusky repeatedly assaulted him over nearly four years beginning when he was 11 years old. During summers, the witness said, he spent days at a time at the coach’s home, sleeping in the basement. He said that on 80%-90% of those nights, Sandusky would have sexual contact with him.
“He sat there (on the edge of the bed) and looked at me and said, ‘Now it’s your turn,’ ” the witness said, his face beginning to contort. “He made me put my mouth on his privates. I don’t know how to explain it. My mind wanted me to move, but I couldn’t move.”
The teenager was the second of Sandusky’s accusers to testify in the trial, which began Monday.
Defense attorney Joe Amendola repeatedly questioned why the witness had provided conflicting statements to Pennsylvania authorities and a state grand jury about the frequency of the alleged abuse, accounts ranging from more than 20 instances of sexual abuse to none.
“There was a lot of stress in me to not say what happened,” the witness said, “but I knew that if I am going to grow up and put this behind me, the truth has to be told.”