BELLEFONTE, pa. — As jurors deliberated in the child sex abuse case against Jerry Sandusky, one of Sandusky’s adopted sons came forward to say that his father had abused him.
Matt Sandusky, 33, was prepared to testify for prosecutors at the trial, his attorneys said in a statement. The statement didn’t specify what the alleged abuse was.
The elder Sandusky, who faces life in prison if convicted of 48 counts of abuse of 10 boys over 15 years, was smiling and chuckling to himself as prosecutors wrapped up closing arguments. His wife, Dottie, leaned forward in her seat with a concerned look, resting her chin in her hands.
The former Penn State assistant football coach was arrested in November in a scandal that led to the firing of beloved head coach Joe Paterno, who died of cancer in January, and the departure of the university’s president.
In their closing statement, prosecutors said Sandusky was “a serial, predatory pedophile” who used gifts and the pageantry of Penn State’s football program to attract and abuse vulnerable boys who came from troubled homes.
“What you should do is come out and say to the defendant that he molested and abused and give them back their souls,” Senior Deputy Attorney General Joseph McGettigan III told jurors. “I give them to you. Acknowledge and give them justice.”
Defense attorney Joseph Amendola argued that the 68-year-old Sandusky was targeted by investigators who coached accusers into making false claims about a generous man whose charity gave them much-needed love.
The jury, which includes nine people with ties to Penn State, had begun deliberating when Matt Sandusky’s attorneys issued a statement alleging that Sandusky abused one of his five adopted sons.
“During the trial, Matt Sandusky contacted us and requested our advice and assistance in arranging a meeting with prosecutors to disclose for the first time in this case that he is a victim of Jerry Sandusky’s abuse,” Andrew Shubin and Justine Andronici said in the statement. “At Matt’s request, we immediately arranged a meeting between him and the prosecutors and investigators.”
Karl Rominger, one of Jerry Sandusky’s lawyers, declined comment. Matt Sandusky’s lawyers and prosecutors didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Matt Sandusky went to live with Sandusky and his wife as a foster child in 1995 and was adopted by them as an adult. He had come into the home through The Second Mile charity.
Shortly after Jerry Sandusky’s arrest, Matt Sandusky’s ex-wife went to court to keep her former father-in-law away from their three young children. Jill Jones successfully obtained a restraining order forbidding the children from sleeping over at their grandparents’ home.
