Accusers talk of Sandusky's sway to win silence

BELLEFONTE, Pa. (AP) ? One of Jerry Sandusky's accusers said he stayed quiet to keep going to Penn State football games.

Another man, who was a foster child when he met Sandusky through his Second Mile charity, spoke of a threat ? that Sandusky told him he would never see his family again if he told anyone what happened.

Those were among the ways Sandusky held sway following alleged inappropriate encounters, the two men testified Wednesday at the ex-assistant football coach's child molestation trial.

"He told me that if I ever told anyone that I'd never see my family again," said the man, now 25. He said he was terrified when Sandusky uttered the threat after the coach pinned him while wrestling in the basement of the Sandusky home and performed oral sex on him.

"I freaked out. I got nervous. I got scared," the man said about the encounter. He said he believed that Sandusky's wife was home at the time, but on a different floor.

The trial resumes Thursday as prosecutors appear to be winding down their case against the 68-year-old Sandusky, charged with abusing 10 boys over a 15-year span. He has maintained his innocence.

Judge John Cleland said the prosecution could rest by the end of the day on Friday. Five of Sandusky's accusers have now testified, including three on Wednesday.

The man who said he was threatened added that Sandusky later apologized for the threat about keeping him away from his biological family. "He told me he didn't mean it and that he loved me," the man said.

A foster child placed with another family, he occasionally stayed in the Sanduskys' basement in State College in the late 1990s. The man, identified in court papers as Victim 10, said Sandusky also assaulted him on other occasions in 1998 and 1999, including once at a pool and another time in the basement. He said he was about 11 at the time.

An expressionless Sandusky sat mostly still at the defense table during his testimony, occasionally turning his head to look the accuser in the eye.

The accuser is one of two who came forward after Sandusky was initially charged in November with assaulting eight boys. Sandusky's attorneys have suggested his accusers have financial reasons for coming forward.

Under cross-examination, the man testified that he was the roommate of another Sandusky accuser at a camp sponsored by The Second Mile. He also acknowledged spending nearly two years in prison for a robbery and involvement with drugs and alcohol but said he is doing better now.

"I'm married. I'm expecting" a child, he said.

Another boy, dubbed Victim 8, has never been located, and his identity is a mystery to prosecutors, but jurors heard about his alleged sexual abuse by Sandusky anyway.

Cleland ruled that a co-worker of Penn State janitor Jim Calhoun could testify about what Calhoun told him in November 2000. Calhoun is now suffering from dementia.

The co-worker, Ron "Buck" Petrosky, said that when he encountered Calhoun in a football team locker room, the janitor told him he had seen Sandusky ? he didn't realize it was a famous coach ? making a boy perform oral sex on him. Petrosky said Calhoun's face was white and his hands were trembling.

"He said, 'Buck, I just witnessed something in there I'll never forget the rest of my life ... that man that just left, he had the boy up against the shower wall, licking on (him),'" Petrosky testified.

Also Wednesday, another man, identified as Victim 5, said he met Sandusky at Second Mile Camp in 1999 and began attending Penn State games with Sandusky and others. In 2001, he said, Sandusky asked him to work out at a gym on campus and then groped him in the showers.

Fighting back tears, he testified that Sandusky "kept lurching forward, but I didn't have anywhere to go. I felt his penis on my back." He said Sandusky touched his genitals "and then he took my hand and placed it on his."

Afterward, the 23-year-old man said, Sandusky drove him home and made "no eye contact" with him. They had no contact since.

Another witness, identified as Victim 7, said he was 10 when he met Sandusky through the charity in 1995. He said Sandusky showered with him repeatedly and embraced him during sleepovers.

Sandusky was "wrapping himself around me, holding me tightly" when he slept over at the man's house, the 27-year-old man said. He said he now has an aversion to chest hair because of his contact with a sometimes-shirtless Sandusky, who has acknowledged he showered with boys but says he never molested them.

The man recalled attending Penn State football games with Sandusky's family and receiving free tickets from Sandusky as recently as 2009.

"I was kind of ashamed about it. I didn't want anybody to know," he said. "Probably most importantly, I didn't want my parents to keep me from going to games. I didn't want them to sort of freak out."

During cross-examination, defense attorney Joseph Amendola noted that the man's testimony was more detailed than what he told a grand jury last year. The witness replied that he had started going to counseling.

"Talking about different events and through talking about things in my past, different things have triggered different memories," he said.

Wednesday began with the father of former assistant coach Mike McQueary testifying about details of a phone call he had with his son after the graduate assistant coach allegedly saw Sandusky abusing a young boy in a locker room shower.

John McQueary told the court he approached former university vice president Gary Schultz about the allegations to follow-up on his son's report to the university. The elder McQueary said Schultz told him he'd heard "noises" previously about Sandusky misconduct.

Schultz and the school athletic director, who is on leave, each face charges of failure to report suspected child abuse and perjury related to their grand jury testimony about Sandusky. Both maintain their innocence.

John McQueary's testimony ended with an unusual exchange with one of Sandusky's attorneys. McQueary apparently couldn't recall testifying at the preliminary hearing in December for Schultz, even after the attorney showed McQueary a transcript from the hearing.

Proceedings Wednesday ended about an hour early. Afterward, a smiling Sandusky, who is under house arrest, carried a white box of evidence to the car that would take him home.

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