Story highlights
Another accuser testifies; the trial recesses until Monday
Photos of some of the accusers are found at Sandusky's home, an agent testifies
Another accuser says Jerry Sandusky touched him inappropriately
An accuser says he can't remember part of a shower with Sandusky
The prosecution’s final accuser Thursday refused to look at Jerry Sandusky when he pointed to him minutes after telling jurors the former Penn State assistant football coach sodomized him and forced him to perform oral sex while he stayed in Sandusky’s basement during visits.
The sexual abuse occurred during a number of visits, the witness, now 18, testified. “There was no fighting against it.”
“Alleged Victim No. 9” said he screamed during one incident, hoping Sandusky’s wife might hear him from upstairs.
There was no answer.
“I think the basement is soundproof,” said Alleged Victim 9, becoming emotional during portions of his testimony. CNN generally does not identify alleged victims of sexual assault.
Jerry Sandusky trial: All you need to know
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.”
The witness said he did not want to keep returning to the Sandusky home, but his mother wanted him to.
The accuser was asked whether he told her about the alleged sexual contact.
“No,” the witness said. “How are you supposed to tell your mom these things?”
The accuser said he finally had enough in 2009 and asked his mother to pick him up from the Sandusky house.
“I didn’t tell her why.”
He testified he didn’t discuss the matter with police until later, when his mother called them, and only told his entire story when he met with prosecutors.
Under cross-examination, the accuser said he and a friend went to a football game in autumn 2011, accompanied by Sandusky, because the friend of the teen had never been to a football game.
Earlier, a police officer testified that he investigated after a woman reported Sandusky had showered with her son in 1998. He said he felt charges should have been filed against Sandusky then, but prosecutors at the time did not agree.
Ronald Schreffler, a former Penn State police investigator who now works for the Department of Homeland Security, said he was among officers hiding in the woman’s home when she confronted Sandusky about her suspicions regarding inappropriate behavior with her son, identified as Alleged Victim 6.
He testified he heard Sandusky tell her: “I wish I could ask forgiveness. I know I can’t get it from you. I wish I were dead.”
Another witnesses, Anthony Sassano, an agent with the state attorney general’s office, testified photos of some of the accusers were found in a photo album during a June 2011 search of the defendant’s house. A list of those who participated in camps put on by Second Mile also was found in the residence, according to Sassano.
Sassano said he found in Sandusky’s abandoned Penn State office lists of Second Mile children with notations next to the names of some of the alleged victims.
Sandusky, longtime defensive coordinator for the Nittany Lions, faces 52 counts tied to what prosecutors say was his systematic abuse of at least 10 boys over a span of 15 years. Now 68, Sandusky has been under house arrest in the days leading up to his trial. He has pleaded not guilty and has maintained his contact with children was not sexual.
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.”
He said he never told anyone about his experiences. Eventually, he said, he was sent to group homes, then foster care.
“He never contacted me,” he said of Sandusky, saying he was angry “because he could just forget about me, like I was nothing, after all that.”
By 1999, as a 12-year-old, he testified, he was uncomfortable with the contact. “I would roll over (in bed) and try to get away from him,” he said. “That’s pretty much where it would stop; I wouldn’t let it go any further.”
Alleged Sandusky victim details abuse
Alleged Victim 6 testified about the 1998 incident, when he was 11, that triggered a police investigation. After working out with Sandusky at Penn State, he told jurors he recalled feeling uncomfortable while showering with Sandusky.
He said that when both were naked, he started to shower across the room from Sandusky. “I didn’t want to be right next to him in the shower. I felt really awkward with that situation.” But, he said, Sandusky told him to come over next to him, then began tickling him.
“I believe at one point he grabbed me from behind and gave me a big bear hug. … He said, ‘I’m going to squeeze your guts out.’ I remember seeing his chest hair right in my face, and thinking, ‘This is icky.’ ”
He remembered Sandusky helped wash him and told him, ” ‘Let me help you with your back, where you can’t reach.’ … It was just escalating, the uncomfortableness of it.”
He testified that he cannot remember anything, even the trip home, after Sandusky lifted him up to the shower head to get the shampoo out of his hair. “It’s just kind of black,” he said.
When he got home, he said he told his mother: “‘By the way, if you see my hair is wet, it’s because we took a shower,” adding, “She knew who I took a shower with. I told her bits and pieces, but not about everything that happened.”
His mother, he testified, called police.
Schreffler testified he interviewed the boy and, after consulting with the district attorney’s office, asked the mother to invite Sandusky to her home twice with authorities hiding in another room. During the second meeting, he heard Sandusky make the statement about forgiveness, he said.
Schreffler said he talked with Sandusky as well. The then-coach acknowledged showering with other boys but said nothing sexual had taken place, he said. Sandusky “stated that he did think it was maybe inappropriate,” Schreffler said. “He wouldn’t do it again. … He used the term ‘bad judgment.’”
Asked if any charges were filed, Schreffler said, “No. I felt there should be some charges, something, but the DA didn’t go for that.”
“There was a missed opportunity in 1998, an opportunity that wasn’t just missed by one person – it was missed by multiple people,” Howard Janet, an attorney representing Alleged Victim 6, told reporters afterward.
Under cross-examination, Alleged Victim 6 acknowledged he maintained contact with Sandusky afterward, attending football games with him, meeting him and his wife for lunch and at one point borrowing his car. He also said he sent Sandusky holiday greetings, including one saying, “I’m glad God has placed you in my life.” The two never again showered together, however, he said.
Alleged Victim 3 was asked by defense attorney Joe Amendola about his grand jury testimony, in which he said he had stayed at the Sandusky home more than 25 times, not more than 50 as he testified Thursday.
“But then I thought about it more,” the man said. “I’ve tried to block this out of my brain.”
Both accusers acknowledged Thursday they had hired civil attorneys, but said they had not paid them anything.
Under questioning from Amendola, Schreffler looked at a transcript of his May 1998 interview with Alleged Victim 6 and testified the boy insisted Sandusky never touched him in an inappropriate place or asked the boy to touch his “private parts.”
In opening statements, defense lawyer Joe Amendola suggested his client would take the stand and say he routinely “got showers with kids” after working out.
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CNN’s Laura Dolan, Dana Garrett and InSession’s Michael Christian contributed to this report.