of 45 of 48 counts of child sexual abuse, believing the graphic testimony of young men over a defense team that portrayed the former
assistant football coach as a caring man devoted to mentoring disadvantaged children.
As the jury foreman read the verdict around 10 p.m., Sandusky stood calmly between his defense attorneys. His wife, Dottie, sitting in the front row of the courtroom with five friends and family members, pursed her lips and shook her head, casting her eyes at the floor.
Moments later, a loud roar could be heard in the courtroom when word of the verdict spread to people gathered outside the historic building?s main entrance. A Sandusky lawyer vowed to appeal.
?Jerry Sandusky is not going to get away with this anymore,? said Justine Andronici, attorney for Victims 3 and 7. She said she messaged her clients: ?You were believed.?
Tom Kline, a lawyer representing Victim 5, said: ?There?s no winners. There?s justice. Mr. Sandusky got what he deserved.?
The jury of seven women and five men, most with Penn State ties, deliberated about 21 hours over two days. None would speak with reporters after the verdict.
The family of the late Penn State football coach Joe Paterno issued a statement:
?Although we understand the task of healing is just beginning, today?s verdict is an important milestone. The community owes a measure of gratitude to the jurors for their diligent service. Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with the victims and their families.?
Pennsylvania Attorney General Linda Kelly, speaking from the courthouse steps, called Sandusky a ?serial child predator ? who has been held accountable for his crimes.?
Kelly said the investigation is ongoing and didn?t specify whether additional charges will be filed.
She thanked the men who testified against Sandusky, calling their involvement crucial to the case. Kelly also encouraged other victims of sexual abuse to come forward.
Some in the crowd said Sandusky deserves nothing less than life behind bars.
?Honestly, I think it should be a death sentence,? William Nash of Bellefonte said.
Prosecutor Joseph E. McGettigan III asked Judge John M. Cleland to revoke Sandusky?s bail. The judge granted the request over defense attorney Joe Amendola?s objection. Sandusky, 68, had been confined to his home under $250,000 bail since December.
Sandusky was sent to the Centre County Prison and walked out accompanied by sheriff?s deputies. He was escorted with his hands cuffed in front of him to a vehicle and driven away.
?From the beginning, we knew what we were facing, so the surprise would have been the opposite,? Amendola told reporters in the courtroom moments after the verdict.
Sandusky made no sound as the verdict was delivered.
?I think Jerry was prepared for this,? Amendola said.
Amendola said he planned for Sandusky to take the stand in his own defense until he learned that Sandusky?s 33-year-old adopted son Matt would then testify against his client.
?That changed the whole complexion of our case,? Amendola said, ?because Jerry always intended to testify.?
Amendola noted Matt Sandusky testified before the grand jury that recommended charging Sandusky and said his father never touched him.
?He was here with his family on the first day of trial, according to his family members, scoffing at the accusers? testimony,? Amendola said.
Of Sandusky?s claims of innocence, Amendola said, ?Jerry believes his story. I believe he believes his story. Where the truth lies, that?s why we have trials.?
The jury acquitted Sandusky of one count of raping a person under the age of 16 ? Victim 2, an unidentified boy former Penn State assistant football coach Mike McQueary testified he saw Sandusky with in a locker room shower.
They also acquitted on counts of indecent assault related to Victims 5 and 6. Victim 6 was a boy whose mother sparked an investigation in 1998 when she discovered Sandusky showered with the boy. In those cases, the jury found no evidence of sex acts or touching.
Sandusky helped bring national prominence to a football program run by the legendary Paterno. He will likely spend the rest of his life in prison for abusing boys over a 15-year period starting in 1994. He will be sentenced within several months.
He retired in 1999 from his position as defensive coordinator for Penn State, where he coached for more than three decades and helped earn the school a national reputation as ?Linebacker U.?
The charges had a devastating impact on the university, with two former executives facing perjury charges for allegedly lying to the state grand jury that heard evidence against Sandusky.
Paterno was fired and university President Graham Spanier forced out for their handling of a 2001 sex-abuse allegation against Sandusky, and the university has acknowledged that its employees have received subpoenas from federal prosecutors.
Penn State said in a statement Friday night that it plans to invite Sandusky?s victims to a private program to address their concerns and compensate them for claims related to the school.
Known nationally for his coaching and winning record under Paterno, Sandusky was also a local celebrity described in trial testimony as a saint for his work with at-risk children through The Second Mile, a charity he founded in 1977 and based in Centre County.
Sandusky and his wife adopted six children and were foster parents to several more, so allegations that Sandusky had taken advantage of the troubled boys about whom he professed to care deeply devastated the idyllic community where Penn State has its main campus.
Over seven days in Centre County Court, prosecutors presented testimony from eight young men and other witnesses who described Sandusky touching, groping, bear-hugging and forcing oral and anal sex on the boys.
The abuse, witnesses said, happened in a basement bedroom at Sandusky?s home near State College, in locker room showers on the Penn State campus, in hotels and on road trips with the Penn State football team.
The men, ranging in age from 18 to 28, testified they suffered in silence, some for more than a decade, because they were ashamed, scared and initially feared losing the father figure they found through their friendship with Sandusky.
One 25-year-old man, identified in court papers as Victim 3, said he felt abandoned by Sandusky when he was sent to live in a group home.
?I prayed that he would call me, find a way to get me out of there, adopt me or something,? the man said.
Each of the eight accusers who testified in court gave his name, but The Morning Call does not identify victims of sexual abuse.
In his closing argument, lead prosecutor McGettigan told jurors he felt he had pieces of the 10 boys? souls in his pocket, and asked jurors to acknowledge their loss.
?Give him the justice he really deserves. Find him guilty of everything,? McGettigan said.
Sandusky?s defense attorneys, Amendola and Karl Rominger, worked to create the impression that his accusers are motivated by the potential to tap Penn State?s coffers through lawsuits and asked in cross-examinations why the men had hired civil lawyers, noting some made more serious allegations after they did.
?If he did this, he should rot in jail,? Amendola said. ?But what if he didn?t do these things? His life is destroyed.?
The defense team also cast doubt on the integrity of the state police investigation that led to charges against Sandusky.
In a move that appeared to catch prosecutors off guard, defense attorneys confronted a pair of state troopers who led the investigation with a recording in which one was heard to share details of other accusers? statements with the 28-year-old man known as Victim 4.
Sandusky?s lawyers put a family friend of McQueary on the witness stand to cast doubt on McQueary?s report about the night in 2001 he saw Sandusky in a locker room shower with a 10- to 12-year-old boy.
In two hours of testimony early in the trial, McQueary said he saw Sandusky with his genitals pressed against the boy?s rear end and had no doubt what he witnessed was sexual.
But Dr. Jonathan Dranov, summoned for advice after McQueary reported the scene to his father, said McQueary never mentioned a specific sexual act.
Dottie Sandusky also testified in his defense, telling jurors she never saw anything inappropriate between her husband and the boys who became like family in the years after Sandusky founded The Second Mile.
She said she remembered fondly most of the boys who testified against her husband and rebutted points of their testimony. Notably, she told the jury that her home?s basement, where some of the abuse was alleged to have taken place, is not soundproof.
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