BELLEFONTE - Defense attorneys in the Jerry Sandusky child abuse case on Tuesday turned up the heat on two prosecution witnesses, pointing to inconsistencies in their testimony and suggesting they stood to gain financially by accusing Sandusky.
The man, known as Victim 1 in grand jury documents, said he did not initially admit to what Sandusky allegedly did to him but eventually reported the abuse to Central Mountain School District officials and Clinton County Children and Youth Services. That led to the police and grand jury investigation.
Former Penn State quarterbacks coach Mike McQueary testified he witnessed Sandusky, 68, a retired defensive coordinator under Joe Paterno, sexually abuse a boy between 8 and 12 years old in the showers of the Lasch Football Building in February 2001.
The 18-year-old Clinton County man said that he met Sandusky through The Second Mile, a charity founded by the coach in 1977 to provide activities for children from dysfunctional homes.
He met Sandusky at a six-day Second Mile summer camp at Penn State and the two become friends. Eventually however, Sandusky began sexually abusing the youngster including instances of oral sex, it has been charged.
Sandusky's attorneys, Karl Rominger of Harrisburg and Joe Amendola of State College, tried to shake the testimony of Tuesday's accusers which led to a variety of emotions. McQueary retorted angrily and in frustration at times, and the 18-year-old man broke down and sometimes fought back tears on the witness stand.
Victim 1 testified that he never knew his father, and he willingly participated in The Second Mile events.
After his third year at The Second Mile camp, Sandusky and he became friends. Sandusky invited him to go to Blanchard Dam with other kids. They swam and the teen said, "Yeah, it was fun."
Eventually though, Sandusky began placing his hand on the boy's leg as they rode in a car, he said.
The boy spent many nights at Sandusky's State College home that included Sandusky's wife, Dottie.
Sandusky began coming into his bedroom at night, "cracking" his back, kissing him on the forehead, then the cheek and eventually the lips, Victim 1 said. He would blow on the boy's stomach.
The relationship then advanced to oral sex.
The young man fought his emotions as he described the night Sandusky's activities became more serious: "I didn't know what to do. I blacked out. I didn't want it to happen. ... I was froze."
He never told his mother what was happening and his mother seemed pleased her son now had a male role model. This put even more pressure on him to go along with Sandusky's antics, he said.
The 18-year-old tried to get away from Sandusky and that led to arguments.
Sandusky would go to the boy's school and pull him out of class. Sandusky was a former volunteer football coach there.
It was there that a wrestling coach, Joe Miller, found Sandusky and the boy lying face-to-face in a weight room.
Miller thought that was unusual but as he testified Tuesday, Sandusky assured him he and the boy were working on a wrestling hold.
He thought nothing of it, because Sandusky was well-known for his charity work with kids and people believed, "Jerry's a great guy."
Amendola cross-examined the teen, pointing out his family had hired a lawyer and the boy had bragged to a neighbor that the Sandusky case was going to mean a big house and a big car for him and his family.
The teen countered by saying the lawyer was to help shield him from the news media, and he denied statements about the house and car.
Rominger also implied that McQueary had a financial interest in the outcome of the Sandusky trial, which McQueary denied.
McQueary, who was relieved of his position with Penn State late last year after Sandusky's arrest on 52 counts of child sexual abuse, recently filed notice that he intended to file a civil lawsuit against Penn State for taking away his job.
He explained Penn State has contractual obligations with him that have not been fulfilled, which is why he is filing a lawsuit.
He professed his love for Penn State and his former job as a coach.
"I don't believe I did anything wrong," he said, explaining he lost the job because of the Sandusky case.
McQueary described in detail what he saw and heard when he went to the football support staff showers in the Lasch Football Building.
He testified that he heard "slapping sounds," flesh-on-flesh coming from the showers, and he glanced into a mirror near his locker. He saw Sandusky in a sexual position, the front of his body against the rear of a young boy. The boy's hands were against the wall.
Answering questions from Senior Deputy Attorney General Joseph McGettigan, McQueary said he was shocked and took a few steps to his right to confirm what he was seeing.
McQueary said Sandusky and the boy "were in an extremely sexual position."
He used the words "extremely" and "severely" repeatedly to describe the sex he witnessed.
McQueary said he slammed the door of his locker, which he said broke up the liaison, and he moved to a position where he was face-to-face with Sandusky and the child.
No words were spoken and McQueary left the shower immediately in an attempt to regain his composure, stating he never saw anything like that. McQueary said he was "extremely alarmed, extremely flustered."
He admitted he did not physically attack Sandusky or rip the child out of Sandusky's grasp, but he told his father, John, what occurred. The next day he reported the incident to his boss, Paterno.
Days later, he met with Penn State Athletic Director Tim Curley and university Vice President for Gary Schultz to discuss what he saw and he said he left no doubt a "severe sexual incident" had occurred, although McQueary said he did not disclose the gross details out of respect for them.
Schultz at the time was the head of the Penn State police, and McQueary insisted that he thought he was reporting it to the police.
Rominger cross-examined McQueary and pointed out in his testimony before the jury, he talked about seeing Sandusky and the youth three times that night - once in the mirror, a second time when he moved to look into the showers and a third time when they turned to face him.
In prior statements to police and during a December preliminary hearing for Schultz and Curley, who are charged with failing to report child abuse and perjury, McQueary said there were only two instances that he glanced at Sandusky and the boy, Rominger pointed out.
Despite alleged inconsistencies in his various statements, McQueary emphatically stuck to his story that he witnessed a sexual event.
