BELLEFONTE, Pa. -- A young man from Clinton County who once thought of Jerry Sandusky as a role model froze with panic the first time Sandusky performed a sex act on him, the young man said during tearful testimony Tuesday.
“After rubbing and cracking my back and rubbing his hands down the back of my shorts, and .. blowing on the 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 oral sex before he broke off contact.
But on cross-examination from defense attorney Joe Amendola, the young man was a different person. He seemed 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 in 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 alleged victims to testify, with alleged victim No. 4, a 28-year-old from Centre County, detailing Monday alleged abuse he suffered over four to five years.
The young man, who’s 18 and graduated from high school just last week, was the one who triggered the investigation into Sandusky.
He testified the physical contact started with Sandusky putting his hand on his 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 starting 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 days at a time. The bedtime routine was the same, he testified, but progressed even 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.”
Joe Miller, an elementary wrestling coach in Clinton County, was driving home one night in December when his son realized he left some of his wrestling gear back at the school.
Miller, a prosecution witness on Tuesday to corroborate alleged victim No. 1’s testimony, testified he turned around, went in to get the gear and noticed a light on in the weight room.
He checked it out to find Sandusky and the boy laying face to face on their sides.
“They were both a little started 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, but he said Sandusky “hopped up like rabbit” after Miller walked in.
The Clinton County caseworker who interviewed alleged victim No. 1 after his mother reported he said he was abused by Sandusky testified that she found evidence of child abuse.
It took two interviews by caseworker Jessica Dersham before the boy opened up, she said. She said during the first interview, in early 2009, she thought the boy was withholding information. The second interview, she testified, revealed enough to suspect child abuse.Dersham said she and Sandusky met after that, and the consistencies of Sandusky’s story and the boy’s story were enough to warrant the suspected abuse.
She testified that Sandusky told her he had a three-year relationship with the boy, in which he took him to some Philadelphia Eagles games, Second Mile outings and away Penn State football games.
Sandusky admitted, she testified, to blowing raspberries on his stomach, cracking and rubbing his back, rubbing his back underneath his shirt, kissing his forehead. She said Sandusky couldn’t say whether the touching went below the boy’s waist.