BELLEFONTE -- Jerry Sandusky began to smile in court as prosecutor Joseph McGettigan described for jurors how the eight men who took the stand and testified they were abused as boys were lavished with gifts, awed by Sandusky’s status at Penn State.
He smiled when McGettigan said he wanted to stand up for Mike McQueary, who has been criticized for going to his father and head coach Joe Paterno, not police, after witnessing Sandusky in a shower with a young boy in 2001.
He smiled when McGettigan talked about his hesitation during an interview with NBC’s Bob Costas, when he was asked if he’s sexually attracted to underage boys.
He laughed silently and shook his head as McGettigan talked about the testimony of a janitor who said he saw Sandusky take a young boy's hand as they exited a shower, then returned to the building twice that night, driving through the parking lot.
He smiled when McGettigan recounted the words of alleged Victim 9’s mom, who said he had trouble going to the bathroom and had underwear missing during the times he would visit Sandusky.
He smiled when McGettigan called him a serial, predatory pedophile.
He smiled when McGettigan talked about his wife, Dottie Sandusky, and her testimony in support of her husband.
The last question McGettigan asked her: Why would they all lie? And she answered: "I don’t know why."
Sandusky leaned forward in his chair, his elbows pushing on the armrest of his chair, and forcing his shoulders up to his chin.
He smiled again.
And finally, right before court adjourned, Sandusky smiled when McGettigan walked from the jury box, over to Sandusky’s chair at the defense table.
He stood next to him and declared that Sandusky had molested, abused and hurt 10 children.
“And can’t give them back their souls or those pieces of souls that he took,” McGettigan said. “But he knows he did it and you know he did it. Give him the justice he really deserves and find him guilty of everything."
McGettigan’s closing statements, which went over basic elements of the case that’s been presented in the last seven days, are the last arguments jurors will hear before deliberating on 48 counts of child sex abuse against the 68-year-old former revered coach and charity founder.
Four of the alleged victims who took the stand and nervously made accusations against Sandusky came back to the courtroom to witness the final moments of the trial.
McGettigan started by pointing out that it was Sandusky’s own attorney who first told jurors there is “overwhelming evidence” against him.
This case isn’t about conspiracies or lying cops, McGettigan said. It’s not about civil attorneys, or hoodwinked accusers, he said.
“I’m not going to disappoint Mr. Amendola,” McGettigan said, turning to a 12-foot projection screen where the photographs of the eight men who’ve accused Sandusky displayed, showing them each as boys.
Amendola had warned jurors in his closing statements not be distracted by it.
“That’s what this case is about,” McGettigan said. “And not just those boys, but two others unknown to us.”
In the last seven days, jurors have heard from eight men who say they were abused as boys, and two men -- a janitor and assistant coach Mike McQueary -- who both said they saw or heard about something inappropriate between Sandusky and a boy in a shower in the same locker room on campus.
Sandusky smiled slightly as McGettigan explained to jurors what psycho-sexual disorder is and how people with it think.
They believe children love them, that what they do doesn’t hurt children, that they have a special relationship with children and that’s why others can’t know what they do with children “in basements and showers, saunas,” he said.
“He thinks these are relationships,” McGettigan said. “At the expense of the child.”
McGettigan, who is soft-spoken even when he raises his voice, told jurors to look at the alleged victims as stages of Sandusky’s pattern.
First, touching. Then sexual touching, on genitals. Followed by extended touching for a period of time. And finally, as three of the accusers described, full-blown sexual acts that are repeated over time.
“You saw the spectrum of grooming behavior and you saw the spectrum of relationships in this case,” McGettigan said.
They even saw what happens when they were “discarded for someone else,” he said.
They heard Sandusky tell a counselor he felt “used” by a young boy.
“Mr. Amendola would have you believe there was this great drive to punish or get this person,” McGettigan said. “... If you conclude there is a conspiracy, then someone bring handcuffs for me, and ... everyone else.”
The eight men who took the stand, “they knew they were going to be called liars, flame throwers,” McGettigan said.
They took the stand anyway.
Yes, they got attorneys.
Who else got an attorney? McGettigan asked. Sandusky got an attorney long before he was charged with anything, he said.
http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2012/06/jerry_sandusky_trial_prosecuto_2.html
