As he lifted up his head to reveal the tears he couldn’t hold back anymore, the person referred to as “Victim 1” took a deep, stuttered breath in and stared for the first time of the day at Jerry Sandusky, the man he said sexually abused him over a span of about three years.
“He kissed my cheek, cracked my back, put his hands down the back of my shorts, blew on my stomach, then…” the young man said, “…then put his mouth on my privates.”
The person referred to as “Victim 1,” the boy whose reports of abuse involving Sandusky led to the grand jury investigation that would ultimately lead to this trial, went into an emotional testimony Tuesday in the second day of Sandusky’s trial. He was the second person referred to as a “Victim” to testify in court.
Now 18 years old, he couldn’t remember exact dates of the times when he said Sandusky abused him, but he recounted the incidents themselves in great detail.
During his second year at a day camp sponsored by the Second Mile at the age of 11 in 2005, the charity for underprivileged boys started by Sandusky in 1977, Sandusky asked the person referred to as “Victim 1” how camp was going for him- that is how the relationship started.
The person referred to as “Victim 1” said other boys would be along the first few times he was with Sandusky, but it didn’t take long for Sandusky to take him to football games and go swimming alone with him. Like the person referred to as “Victim 4,” the person referred to as “Victim 1” said Sandusky would sometimes put his hand on the boy’s leg while driving.
The person referred to as “Victim 1” said he eventually started staying the night at the Sandusky home in the finished basement where Sandusky had games such as darts and air hockey. Dottie Sandusky, Jerry Sandusky’s wife, was never downstairs when the two were together, the young man said.
At first the person referred as “Victim 1” said Sandusky would rub his back and kiss him on the forehead before he went to bed. This escalated, the man said, to Sandusky cracking his back, rubbing underneath the back of his shorts, kissing him on the cheek and eventually on the lips.
The person referred to as “Victim 1” said the final thing Sandusky would always do before he initiated sexual contact was blow on his stomach. He said after this, he always knew Sandusky would do something sexual.
Sandusky would put his mouth over the boy’s genitals numerous times, he said.
This person recounted much of his experiences with Sandusky with a red face and while restraining tears.
Through his stammered speech and sobbing, the person referred to as “Victim 1” said after Sandusky put his mouth over his genitals a couple of times, Sandusky said “Now it’s your turn,” motioning for the boy to perform oral sex on him.
When the person referred to as “Victim 1” began to tell his story about how Sandusky initiated sexual contact, many short breaks were taken for him to regain composure.
But there were also times during his testimony when he became agitated while under cross examination.
Lead prosecutor Joe Amendola, during his cross examination, asked the person referred to as “Victim 1” if he testified once in front of a grand jury that oral sex occurred 12 times and in front of another 20 times. The person referred to as “Victim 1” said he gets scared telling the story to new people, which led him not to tell the truth initially.
Amendola continued to question him about the discrepancies in his various testimonies, causing the person referred to as “Victim 1” to break down and become visibly angry at Amendola.
“It’s hard enough for me to tell these folks in the jury what happened,” the young man said. “You’re asking me the same questions over and over again and I’m going to tell you the same thing — I was scared.”
After this Amendola paused for a moment and continued with his questions about the discrepancies. The person referred to as “Victim 1” shook his head, looking upward with tears and at one point clearly mouthed to lead prosecutor Joe McGettigan, “Make him stop.”
The testimony traversed at one point into the person referred to as “Victim 1’s” continued relationship with Sandusky into his early teens and how this contact fractured his daily life.
The person referred to as “Victim 1” said he began to act out, get into fights at school and eventually wet the bed. He said his mother never initially thought anything strange was going on, and was happy her son could have a father figure in his life, which he lacked.
On one occasion, Sandusky went to the house of the person referred to as “Victim 1” stood on the front lawn and refused to leave, according to the testimony of the young man’s grandfather.
The grandfather said he arrived at the house at the insistence of the mother of the person referred to as “Victim 1.”
The grandfather said Sandusky wanted a summer schedule of the person referred to as “Victim 1” so he could plan trips and activities around it, and refused to leave until he got it.
The grandfather said he suggested that Sandusky take another boy and Sandusky said he wanted to take the person referred to as “Victim 1.” The grandfather said Sandusky left sometime after their conversation.
Sandusky entered into the person referred to as “Victim 1’s” academic life eventually, often coming to his school and taking him out of class and working out with him at his school.
Once, the elementary school wrestling coach Joe Miller walked in on Sandusky and the person referred to “Victim 1” lying on the floor of the school weight room face to face.
Joe Miller testified Tuesday saying he came into the room when he saw a light on after hours when no one was allowed in the room. Miller said when he walked in Sandusky “jumped up” and told Miller he was showing some wrestling moves to the person referred to as “Victim 1”.
Miller said he initially thought something was curious about Sandusky being in there alone with a young boy, but afterwards dismissed his first impression, reminding himself that Sandusky “was a saint.”
The person referred to as “Victim 1” said his school principal eventually got him to say that he and Sandusky had some sort of inappropriate contact. She eventually called Children Youth Services who had one of their case workers, Jessica Dershem, talk to the boy.
After two meetings, Dershem said the boy said some contact had occurred between him and Sandusky, although he never said anything sexual happened.
Dershem said she eventually had a meeting with Sandusky and Amendola. In a letter written prior to the meeting, Sandusky wrote that the person referred to as “Victim 1” did sleep over at his house, that he did do things such as crack his back and kiss him on the head and that Sandusky became “wrapped up” in the boy and considered him extended family, Dershem said.
Dershem also said Sandusky wrote in the letter that he took the person referred to as “Victim 1” hotels a couple of times but nothing sexual happened and each room they occupied had at least two beds or one bed and a cot.
Mandy Musser, the front office manager of the Hilton Garden Inn where Sandusky and the person referred to as “Victim 1” stayed, said in testimony that she never got any complaints that there was anything inappropriate happening between the two.
Cynthia Burns, director of housekeeping at the Hilton Garden Inn, said she took her two young grandchildren — both Penn State fans and who both knew who Sandusky was — to the hotel pool when Sandusky and the person referred to as “Victim 1” were there. Burns said that they all threw a football in the pool together and she never suspected anything strange was going on.
Dershem said that from what she gathered Sandusky does sound like someone who has had an inappropriate relationship with a minor and she would expect him to deny it.