Testimony ends in Sandusky trial
Defense rests case without coach testifying
BELLEFONTE, Pa. — Jerry Sandusky’s defense against 51 counts of child sex-abuse charges ended Wednesday with defense attorneys electing not to call the former Penn State assistant coach to the stand.
Defense attorney Joe Amendola had signaled in his opening statements last week that Sandusky, 68, would testify, but following the testimony of four defense witnesses Wednesday, Amendola stood briefly and announced that his case had concluded.
Closing arguments in the case will begin today, and the jury of seven women and five men will begin deliberations immediately after.
“There was great expectation built up that Mr. Sandusky was going to take the stand and say this didn’t happen,” said attorney Thomas Kline, who represents one of the alleged victims. “He didn’t do that. Jurors look for direct refutation of charges. Here we didn’t see any direct refutation of a mountain of evidence.”
For the defense, the decision whether to have Sandusky testify was mined with potential peril. Those risks were heightened by Sandusky’s halting performance in pretrial interviews with NBC’s Bob Costas and The New York Times.
In both interviews, Sandusky hesitated when he was asked about whether he was attracted to young boys. Last week, prosecutors offered the NBC interview as evidence against Sandusky.
Defense attorneys wrapped up their presentation Wednesday with a former participant in Sandusky’s charity for troubled children, who told jurors that he believed investigators wanted him to provide false information about the former coach.
“I felt like they wanted me to say something that wasn’t true,” David Hilton testified.
Hilton said that he was visited three times by Pennsylvania police and that their inquiries intensified with each visit. “They said if I was lying, I could get in trouble,” he said.
Hilton said that nothing inappropriate ever happened with Sandus- ky, whom he described as a “father figure” to him during his childhood.
On cross-examination, Hilton said that prosecutors never suggested that he lie about his experiences with Sandusky.
Hilton acknowledged meeting with lead prosecutor Joe McGettigan, whom Hilton described as a “pretty cool guy.” The remark prompted laughter from the packed courtroom.
Earlier, the family friend of key prosecution witness Michael McQueary told jurors that McQueary never related that he saw Sandusky in a sexual position with a young boy in a Penn State shower room in 2001.
Jonathan Dranov, a physician, said he was called to the home of the graduate assistant football coach, where he found McQueary “shaken.” McQueary told Dranov he had heard “sexual sounds” during a visit to the university locker room earlier that night.
McQueary testified last week that he saw a naked Sandusky in the shower in a sexual position behind a boy believed to be about 10 to 12 years old.
Dranov said he pressed McQueary to describe what he saw, but McQueary, he said, never described witnessing a sexual act. The doctor said McQueary did describe seeing a boy in the shower area and later, Sandusky.
“What did you see?” Dranov said, recalling his questioning of McQueary. Each time, Dranov said, he asked the question that McQueary described only the “sounds.”
The shower incident was one of the most explosive allegations lodged against Sandusky when charges were first announced in November. The university was criticized for not dealing with the information that McQueary said he gave to university administration officials and head football coach Joe Paterno.
The charges eventually led to the ousters of university president Graham Spanier and Paterno.
Former Penn State athletic director Tim Curley and retired senior vice president Gary Schultz are awaiting trial on related charges of perjury. State prosecutors said they lied to the grand jury when they said that McQueary's report to them did not include information about Sandusky's involvement in sexual activities. Both men have denied any wrongdoing.