The first witness took to the stand to testify Monday afternoon on the first day of Jerry Sandusky trial proceedings.

Now 28 years old, the person referred to as “Victim 4” told the court how he met Sandusky through the Second Mile, the charity that Sandusky started for underprivileged children in 1977.

This person was also among those who filed to have his name concealed while testifying in court, in addition to the people referred to as “Victim 3,” “Victim 5,” “Victim 6” and “Victim 7.” Senior Judge John Cleland denied this motion.

The man said his elementary school guidance counselor referred him to The Second Mile in 1996 when he was 12 years old.

Although he lived with his mother at the time, he sometimes lived with his grandmother because he did not get along with his then-new stepfather, he said. The man said this tension with his stepfather, and the fact that he was in trouble sometimes out of school, were the primary reasons his guidance counselor referred him to The Second Mile.

The person said he met Sandusky in his second year with the charity, when Sandusky came to visit the person’s roommate at the Second Mile camp. Within two to three weeks, the person was invited to a Sandusky family picnic. At the picnic, Sandusky threw him and other boys into the water while touching him on the buttocks and near his groin, the man said.

Within weeks of that encounter, Sandusky began to spend more time with him, the man said, often picking him up at school and taking him to work out. During car rides, Sandusky would put his hand on the thigh of the person like he was “his [Sandusky’s] girlfriend,” the man said.

After workouts, the man testified, Sandusky would suggest the two take showers, which often lead to “soap fights,” which would then escalate to play boxing and play wrestling where Sandusky would often bear-hug the person from behind.

This escalated to sexual contact, the man said. The sexual acts in the shower would become more aggressive, the man said, to a point where Sandusky would sometimes hold him down between his legs so that his face was near Sandusky’s groin. At other times in the shower, the person said Sandusky would “sneakily try to put it [his penis] in his mouth.”

The man said once while he was taking a shower with Sandusky, former football coach Tom Bradley came into the shower. The man said he thought Bradley may have been “suspicious” because he stayed in the shower until both of them left.

On one occasion, the person referred to as “Victim 4” said he hit Sandusky in the head with a bottle when Sandusky refused to stop putting his hand on his leg. The man said he struck back this time because he had a friend in the back seat, and he did not want the friend to see Sandusky touching him.

Lead defense attorney Joe Amendola later asked the man why he acted out only on this occasion and why he did not just cut off all communication with Sandusky earlier. The man said he never had a strong father figure, and he did not want to lose all the other good things Sandusky did for him.

Over the course of their time together, the man said Sandusky gave the person many gifts, including a set of golf clubs and hockey equipment. Sandusky once bought him two cartons of cigarettes and marijuana and also drove him to the house where he bought the marijuana, the man said.

After Sandusky bought the then-15-year-old the marijuana, the teen smoked it in Sandusky’s car while Sandusky told him, “You shouldn’t do that,” the man said. The man also said Sandusky did not ask him to engage in sexual acts after he bought him the marijuana.

Also submitted to the court were letters that prosecutors said Sandusky wrote to the man after he tried to cut off contact with Sandusky. The man described some of these correspondences as “creepy love letters.”

One of the letters, written on Penn State stationary, was a short story describing the relationship between Sandusky and the boy. Another letter said, “I know that I have made my share of mistakes however I hope that I will be able to say that I cared. There has been love in my heart.”

Contracts prosecutors said Sandusky made with the boy – in which the boy agreed to spend time with Sandusky and keep his grades up in exchange for money – were also submitted to the court. Marc McCann, Second Mile program director, testified after this that it was not a part of an official Second Mile program.

The program was referred to as The Second Mile Action Program, but McCann said it never was approved by The Second Mile, which would have required approval from 50 to 60 people.

McCann also testified that another program Sandusky had the person participate in, the Golf For Life Mentor Program, was not a Second Mile program, even though there was a signed permission slip to participate in it from the person’s parents.