Victim 1 testified that he was sexually assaulted by Jerry Sandusky during a disturbing ritual in the basement bedroom of Sandusky's home. Sandusky would lie underneath the 12-year-old boy.
Then, Sandusky would rub the boy's backside and blow on his stomach.
“Victim 1 was uncomfortable with the contact and would sometimes try to hide in the basement,” the Grand Jury report says. “Victim 1 testified that Sandusky performed oral sex on him more than 20 times through 2007 and early 2008.”
Victim 2, estimated to be age 10, was subjected to anal sex with his hands up against a shower wall.
Victim 4used to cower in closets when Sandusky showed up at his house.
Eight boys, during the course of 15 years, were allegedly abused by a football coach.
But Sandusky was no run-of-the-mill coach. For three decades, he was the right-hand man of Joe Paterno at Penn State, where football was not just a game but a morality play.
Now Paterno, revered not only for his record 409 victories but for his steadfast standards of high character, will have his legacy tainted by a sordid scandal. Paterno, 84, who had no plans to retire, might be forced into an ungraceful exit as early as this week.
Paterno is to Penn State what George Washington is to the one-dollar bill. Wearing tie, black shoes and thick glasses and speaking in his Brooklyn accent, the Ivy League English literature major is esteemed as a life coach who expects his players to wear throwback uniforms, graduate and become productive citizens.
But the arrest of Sandusky and charges of perjury against two university administrators have torn apart Happy Valley.
What did Paterno know and did he do enough to stop Sandusky? Paterno fulfilled his legal obligation by reporting an incident to his superiors in 2002. But did he fulfill his moral obligation? Did he, as the creator, commander and curator of Penn State's most valuable asset, seize control of a problematic and potentially horrific situation and refuse to let go until it was resolved? Did he have the courage to put the safety of powerless strangers above the reputation of a lifelong friend?
Count the years that have passed and the answer appears to be no.
Count the number of documented victims — probably a small percentage of the number of actual victims — and the answer appears to be no.
There were multiple incidents, including documented ones in 1998, 2000 and 2002. Sandusky brought boys to Penn State games, practices, meals. Yet no one at the university took decisive action. The Sandusky scandal has scary similarities to the Catholic Church's sexual abuse scandal.
Sandusky, 67, selected victims from his own trap, a charitable foundation called The Second Mile, which he started to “help children who need additional support and would benefit from positive human interaction.”
He used his position of authority and glamour as a coach. He bribed vulnerable boys with game tickets, tailgate parties, Nike shoes, golf clubs, ice hockey gear, computers, restaurant meals, cash. He even guaranteed one boy he would be a walk-on player at Penn State.
He molested them in his house, in the hotel where the Nittany Lions stayed on Friday nights, at a bowl game, in a sauna, in a high school wrestling room.
But his favorite place was in the Penn State football team's locker room showers. Seven of the eight victims were abused in the shower.
