A week after it started, the Sandusky case is rapidly winding down and may end up in the jury’s hands by Thursday:
(Reuters) – Lawyers for Jerry Sandusky kicked off their side of the high-profile sex abuse trial with testimony from two former assistant football coaches who told jurors it was not unusual for grown men to shower with boys in the Penn State locker rooms.
Richard Anderson, who served on the school’s coaching staff over two different periods for more than 20 years before retiring at the end of last season, told the jury on Monday he had witnessed Sandusky in the Pennsylvania State University showers with children, but never saw anything inappropriate.
He testified that he, too, would shower with children.
Sandusky, 68, the former defensive coordinator for Pennsylvania State University’s successful football program, faces more than 50 counts of abusing 10 boys over a 15-year period, allegations that focused U.S. national attention on the issue of child sexual abuse and rocked the college sports world.
Judge John Cleland said on Monday the jury would be sequestered during deliberations and he expected closing arguments in the fast-paced trial to take place on Thursday.
Over several days of testimony, prosecutors sought to show Sandusky is a serial sexual predator who targeted boys through the Second Mile charity he founded in 1977 for underprivileged children. If convicted on all counts, Sandusky faces a sentence of more than 500 years in prison.
Accounts from the witnesses, now aged 18 to 28, of being victimized as young boys by a much older man, including oral sex and shared showers, at times brought them and jurors to tears.
The only real question left at this point is whether Sandusky takes the stand or not. It would seem to be an idiotic thing to do, but from the press descriptions it doesn’t seem like the defense has much to go on to begin with so they may decide to just throw a Hail Mary and see what happens. In any case, though, I find it hard to see how Sandusky isn’t convicted of the vast majority of the charges against him.
