This is for Simon.
The man didn’t break down in tears. He didn’t need a break to collect himself.
But in his own way, the 28-year-old man known as Victim 4 told a riveting story in the first day of
Jerry Sandusky’s child sex abuse trial.
On the stand for nearly four hours, he told jurors about how he came to meet the fallen Penn State football legend, and how their relationship quickly branched into two weirdly different directions.
There was the public face of Sandusky, the champion of troubled youth and Joe Paterno’s longtime defensive coordinator.
Publicly, a mentor with a sterling reputation was exposing the troubled kid to a life the boy could never have imagined. Sandusky allowed him to rub elbows with Penn State football players.
And then there was the private side, the man said, one filled with increasingly uncomfortable after-hours encounters in the coaches’ shower room on the Penn State campus.
It was there, Victim 4 told jurors, where he unwittingly traded his innocence because it’s what his “father figure” wanted.
At first, he testified, he was too scared to speak about these strange experiences. But eventually, he conceded, he kept silent because he had become infatuated with the perks.
He gained sideline access at Nittany Lions games — the biggest show in town. He received trips to bowl games. Clothing, shoes and sporting equipment.
Finally, he testified that he was worried about his reputation at school. In his eyes, the loss of face with his classmates might be worse than the acts themselves.
So he played the game.
“It was never talked about. Ever,” Victim 4 said.
He described the post-workout showers. He said they progressed in a matter of weeks from naked bearhugs and wrestling matches to slow caresses with the mentor guiding the boy’s hand all over his body.
Ultimately, it progressed to Sandusky compelling the boy to perform oral sex on him, he testified.
“It was basically like, whatever happened there, never really happened,” Victim 4 said.
He was the first witness in Sandusky’s trial. Victim 4 is likely to be one that the prosecutors from the state attorney general’s office consider to be among their strongest.
Another witness, Alleged Victim 3, testified Thursday that Sandusky would touch him inappropriately during showers and overnight stays at the former Penn State coach's home.
He testified that he was part of Second Mile and that he stayed overnight at Sandusky's home "more than 50 times." Sandusky often came downstairs where he was sleeping, he said.
"He would ask me why I would want to sleep with all my clothes on, so eventually I'd be stripped down to my underwear," said the man, now 25. "He'd jump into bed with me, start tickling me, blowing on my stomach and pelvis. He would also, at times, touch my penis."
Asked if he told Sandusky to stop, he said, "No. I was enjoying the things I was getting too much," referencing trips to football games and favors from Sandusky. "He made me feel like I was part of something, like a family," he said. "He gave me things that I had never had before. ... I loved him."
The accuser said he started going to the Sandusky home when he was about 12 and stopped going in 2009. He said he met the defendant a few years before while swimming at a summer camp sponsored by Second Mile, the charity founded by Sandusky. "He seemed nice," the witness said of Sandusky.
When asked to identify his attacker, the witness pointed to Sandusky without looking at him.
"I don't want to look at him," he said.
Jurors earlier Thursday heard from two other accusers and a police officer and an investigator.
Judge John Cleland indicated he expected the commonwealth of Pennsylvania to conclude its case in the afternoon, but that was not the case.
No proceedings are planned for Friday; the trial will resume Monday.
During testimony Thursday, Alleged Victim 9 said that Sandusky went from presenting gifts to hugging him and kissing him. He told his mother about it, saying Sandusky was a "touchy-feely type of person, that's all."
The physical contact escalated, the accuser said.
"He started getting physical, had me touch his penis and stuff."
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Attack the victims now, follow JZ's lead. They all lied and Jerry was just a nice guy!!!! No grooming going on there just like Clemente said. These grown men all are just lying now to get paid as it's so common (SARCASM) for victims of abuse to simply speak up at the time. 9 Victims and they are all liars. Oh wait, your upset because Jerry's lawyer wasn't good enough to get this man off.
