Penn State's Jerry Sandusky 'Obsessed' and 'Clingy' with Sex Abuse Victim, Claims Indictment
A grand jury indictment describes former Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky as being obsessed with one of the alleged victims and becoming "clingy" and "needy" when another victim tried to distance himself from the alleged pedophile football coach.
In addition, a Pittsburgh radio host believes Penn State administrators knew of the child-sex scandal, but offered to keep quiet if Sandusky retired. Eventually, Sandusky began coaching high school football, giving him "unfettered" access to young boys.
According to the testimony, the victim, described as "Victim 1" in the report, had met Sandusky sometime between 2005 and 2006 through the Second Mile program, a "statewide non-profit organization for children who need additional support and who would benefit from positive human contact," according to its website.
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Victim 1's involvement with Sandusky began during his second year in the program, in 2007, while participating in Second Mile's Penn State University Park campus. At this time, Victim 1 began to stay overnight at Sanduskly's residence, where he would sleep in a basement bedroom.
Sandusky would also take Victim 1 to sporting events, such as Philadelphia Eagles games and Penn State football practices, as well as give the boy gifts, including computers, clothes and cash. Sandusky also took Victim 1 to church.
It was during this time that Sandusky allegedly began initiating innapropriate physical contact, starting with rubbing Victim's 1 back to "crack" it. According to the indictment, "the back-cracking became a ritual at bedtime."
According to the indictment, Sandusky began kissing and then performing oral sex on Victim 1 several times over an approximate one-year period between 2007 and 2008. Victim 1 "did not want to engage in sexual contact with Sandusky and knew it was wrong," the indictment says.
Sandusky was also a football coach volunteer at Victim 1's high school, where he is reported to have had Victim 1 taken out of his study hall period on several occasions for unsupervised "visits."
Due to being a volunteer as well as a varsity football coach, Sandusky had "unfettered" access to students, the indictment said.
Victim 1 tried to break off contact with Sandusky and stopped taking his calls, even telling his mother to tell the football coach he was not home, according to the report. But Sandusky refused to leave Victim 1 alone.
Sandusky's persistence to maintain contact with Victim 1 was evident from phone records. The Office of Attorney General Narcotics Agent Anthony Sassano testified that phone records show 118 calls from Sandusky's home and cell phones to Victim 1's home phone. Only four phone calls were made from Victim 1's phone to Sandusky.
Witnesses say Sandusky exhibited strange behavior when another young boy ended relations with him. Steven Turchetta, an assistant principal and head football coach at the high school Victim 1 attended and where Sandusky was a volunteer assistant football coach, described Sandusky as "very controlling" in his relationships with boys in the Second Mile program. Sandusky also required more time than the boys were able or willing to give, even getting into "shouting matches" with boys who would not acquiesce to his demands.
Turchetta became "suspicious" of Sandusky when he noticed how "clingy" and "needy" the Penn State coach became wen a young man ended contact.
It was also Turchetta whom Victim 1's mother called to report the abuse her son had experienced.
Sandusky has denied the charges. However, the investigation has been going on for several years, with rumors dating back to the 90s, before Sandusky retired in 1999, at the age of 55, which is considered very young for a coach many believed would be a successor to legendary coach Joe Paterno. According to allegations from Pittsburgh radio host Mark Madden, Sandusky agreed to retire from Penn State in exchange for a cover-up of the scandal.
The first rumors of pedophilia surfaced in 1998, months before Sandusky's resignation. In a column he wrote for the Beaver County Times in April, Madden asked "did Penn State's "considerable influence help get Sandusky off the hook?"
"Don't kid yourself. That could happen," Madden wrote. "Don't underestimate the power of Paterno and Penn State in central Pennsylvania when it comes to politicians, the police and the media."
He added: "In 1999, Penn State was rid of Sandusky. His rep was unblemished, which allowed him to continue running a charitable foundation that gave him access to underage males. To be a volunteer assistant with a high school football team, thus gaining access to underage males."
Sandusky, 67, was arrested on Nov. 5, 2011, and is facing numerous federal and misdemeanor charges, including seven counts of first-degree involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, all of which are punishable by up to 20 years in prison, according to Pennsylvania State Attorney General Linda Kelly.
The former Penn State football coach has six adopted children with his wife, Dottie.
