John McQueary Sr. testified this morning that he doesn’t remember testifying in Harrisburg in a perjury case against two former Penn State administrators about his son saying he saw Jerry Sandusky in an “extremely sexual” situation with a young boy in a shower.
“I was not in that courthouse, to my knowledge,” John McQueary said with a confused look on his face.
But for someone who said he didn’t remember testifying seven months ago in Harrisburg, John McQueary was adamant about what he remembered his son Mike McQueary telling him more than 11 years ago. John McQueary said he believed without question that his son interrupted Sandusky having sex with the boy in a locker room shower at Penn State’s Lasch Building.
John McQueary testified today as a prosecution witness in the Sandusky case, and the bizarre development about his lack of memory came after defense attorney Karl Rominger began asking him on cross-examination about his testimony for the preliminary hearing for former athletic director Tim Curley and senior administrator Gary Schultz.
John McQueary’s testimony of that hearing Dec. 16, 2011, centered on what Mike McQueary told his father about what he saw in the Lasch Building that night. On Tuesday, Mike McQueary testified for the prosecution he heard “skin on skin smacking sounds” and described Sandusky in an “extremely sexual” position with the boy pressed up against the wall, and Sandusky behind him.
Rominger apparently wanted to review John McQueary’s preliminary hearing testimony, so he showed him the transcript, which is also publicly available on the Dauphin County court’s website.
John McQueary said he didn’t remember. Rominger had a surprised look on his face for what seems to be the first bright spot for the defense in the trial.
Rominger began to further question John McQueary about his not remembering that, but Senior Judge John Cleland stopped him, saying the witness said he wasn’t there.
Rominger stopped his cross-examination and prosecutor Joseph E. McGettigan had no questions on redirect examination.
What that means to either case isn’t immediately clear.
Before the cross-examination from the defense, McGettigan questioned John McQueary about the conversations he had with Mike McQueary immediately after Mike McQueary informed his dad he saw the alleged incident and came to his father’s house.
The father said his son told him he first heard noises after going into the locker room — “His description for me was a slapping, rhythmic, kind of thrusting, slapping sound,” John McQueary said.
John McQueary said his son told him he saw Sandusky in a position close to the boy, who was against the shower wall, but Mike McQueary struggled to put the graphic scene into specific words.
John McQueary asked what was taking place, and he said his son said something such as, “It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what was going on.”
John McQueary said he then asked: “ 'Did you see anything that you could verify — penetration,’ or I might have used the word sodomy.
“He said, ‘no, I did not actually see that.’ ”
John McQueary said Jonathan Dranov, a local doctor and McQueary family friend, came over, but the details of that discussion were not brought up.
John McQueary also testified about a “brief” conversation he had with Gary Schultz and Dranov after Mike McQueary report. John McQueary said Schultz told him he had heard “noise” about this kind of behavior with Sandusky before.
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