Attorneys for alleged victims pile on Sandusky

Posted: November 17, 2011

ATTORNEYS for some of Jerry Sandusky's alleged victims said yesterday that the former Penn State coach's denial of sex-abuse claims only further traumatizes the boys he's harmed.

Harrisburg lawyer Ben Andreozzi said Sandusky's televised statement that he merely showered and horsed around with boys serves "to re-victimize these young men at a time when they should be healing." Andreozzi said he represents a client who will testify that he was "severely sexually assaulted" by Sandusky.

Jeff Anderson, a Minnesota lawyer, told CBS that the institutional failure at Penn State parallels the child-abuse scandal in the Catholic Church. Anderson said he represents multiple sex-abuse victims of Sandusky.

"The emotions of the survivors and their families right now are retraumatization; it's a mixture of despair, confusion and fury," Anderson said.

Sandusky, 67, is accused in a grand-jury report of abusing eight boys over 15 years. He allegedly met his victims through the Second Mile, a charity he established for at-risk children.

Speaking Monday on NBC's "Rock Center," an attorney for Sandusky said he expected several of the alleged victims to come forward to say that Sandusky had not abused them.

Andreozzi said the opposite was true.

"Others are actually coming forward, and I will have more information for you later this week," Andreozzi said.

State Police said yesterday that news reports that eight to 10 more victims had come forward are untrue.

The scandal has rocked the nation. It has led to the ousting of storied coach Joe Paterno and university president Graham Spanier. Two other university officials have been charged with perjury for allegedly lying to the grand jury.

In other developments:

* A new judge will handle Sandusky's Dec. 7 preliminary hearing. Robert E. Scott, a senior district judge in Westmoreland County, will replace Centre County District Judge Leslie Dutchcot.

Dutchcot, who set Sandusky's bail at $100,000 unsecured, was later found to have been a previous donor to Sandusky's charity. The prosecution had requested $500,000 bail and an ankle monitor.

* Both Penn State's campus police and State College cops say Mike McQueary never came to them after seeing Sandusky allegedly raping a boy in the Penn State locker room in 2002.

In emails to friends published this week, McQueary wrote that after the alleged incident he had "discussions with police and with the official at the university in charge of police."

McQueary, Penn State wide-receivers coach, was a key witness for the prosecution in the case against Sandusky. He is on paid administrative leave.

* A $3 million state grant earmarked for the Second Mile has been put on hold.

Gov. Corbett said yesterday that he knew that Sandusky was gone from the organization when the grant was approved earlier this year. Corbett, who said the funds were being withheld in light of the growing scandal, defended the decision to approve the grant while knowing about the allegations against Sandusky.

Corbett was the attorney general whose office in 2008 began the probe into allegations of sexual contact between young boys and Sandusky, who founded the charity in 1977.

* Citizens Bank, which has given out buttons with phrases directed at Penn State's opponents before games all during this football season, will not distribute the buttons before the team's next two games, for fear that the messages were in questionable taste, according to the Patriot-News "Inside Big Ten Football" blog.

- The Associated Press

contributed to this report.

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