by Patrick H. Moore
The two criminals I despise the most are Ariel Castro and Jerry Sandusky. Keep in mind that I’m not prone to hating criminals; mostly I’m just curious. But these two guys really stick in my craw. It has something to do with the fact that they are creeps and cowards and abused young people sexually, physically and emotionally for a very long time.
Jerry Sandusky is currently serving no less than 30 years in prison. He is housed at Greene State Prison, a Supermax facility in Franklin Township, Pennsylvania. Although Sandusky is now salted away for good, the civil side of his case is still continuing. In fact, it was confirmed on Saturday that Victim #5, one of the eight victims who testified against Sandusky at his trial, has reached a settlement with Penn State and will be receiving several million dollars.
The Associated Press reports:
A young man who testified he was fondled by former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky has reached a settlement that gives him some peace of mind while putting the university in a better position to recover the money through a third party, the man’s attorney says.
The settlement is the first among dozens of claims made against the school amid the Sandusky child sex abuse scandal.
The Philadelphia Inquirer first reported that the young man known as “Victim 5,” who took the stand at Sandusky’s criminal trial and sentencing last year, settled for several million dollars.
Attorney Tom Kline confirmed the deal to The Associated Press on Saturday, but would not specify the dollar amount. He said the parties signed off on the agreement Friday.
Kline said his 25-year-old client was relieved and expected to receive the money within a month.
Victim #5′s case was considered among the more serious because the abuse occurred in August 2001, months after top school officials were informed by a graduate assistant, Mike McQueary, that he saw Sandusky assaulting a boy in a team shower.
Let’s go back to Sandusky’s trial and briefly review what this monster did to Victim #5:
Victim #5 met Sandusky through his charity, The Second Mile, when he was in the fifth grade. He was referred to The Second Mile in order to improve his English skills because his family did not speak English at home. At trial, the man testified that he didn’t initially realize that Sandusky’s attentions – like putting his hand on the boy’s knee in the car – were inappropriate.
“My father used to squeeze my knee, so it was nothing unusual.”
Of course, he didn’t initially realize how this despicable excuse for a human being operated. Pedophiles — and this technically was pedophilia because the boy was less than 12 years old — do not typically go out and advertise their intentions; rather, they work covertly luring their intended victims into compromising positions from which they cannot escape.
At the trial, Victim #5 testified that Sandusky called his home in 2001 and asked his mother if he could go work out with him. He said the two went to the Penn State gym which was was where Sandusky exposed himself in the sauna. Afterward, he testified, the two went to the showers where the witness chose a spigot at the far end and tried to face the wall but that he felt Sandusky watching him.
“I noticed that his penis was enlarged but I didn’t understand the significance of it back then.”
“He threw some soap at me and started lathering my shoulders. I think he crept forward a little bit more. I felt his body on my back and kept lurching forward. I felt his penis on my back and I kind of turned away and I felt his arm move on me. He touched my genitalia. He took my hand and he placed it on his.”
The witness testified that after the incident Sandusky was “upset with me” and drove him home in silence. As is typical among children who are sexually abused, Victim #5 kept silent about the incident for over a decade until he told his girlfriend last year.
After Victim 5 completed his testifimony, the prosecution played a recording of a Bob Costas’ famous (or should I say infamous) interview of Sandusky in which Sandusky denies sexually abusing the boys, saying:
“I enjoy young people, I love to be around them. No, I am not sexually attracted to young boys.”
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At the trial, the judge allowing hearsay testimony from a Penn State janitor, Ronald Petrosky, who said his co-worker told him he saw Sandusky performing oral sex on a young boy in a Penn State locker room shower in 2000. Petroskey told the court that he was doing his nightly clean-up when he saw “two pairs of legs” in the shower. He said he waited for them to leave to finish cleaning and was then approached by his co-worker, Jim Calhoun. (At the time of the trial, Calhoun was unable to testify because he was hospitalized with dementia.)
“I could tell he (Calhoun) was upset,” Petrosky told the Court. Petrosky stated that Calhoun told him he had seen Sandusky performing oral sex on a young boy, known as “Victim 8.”
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Victim #5 was among eight young men who testified at Sandusky’s trial about abuse that included fondling and rape, including numerous incidents on the Penn State campus.
As readers will recall, a 1998 complaint about Sandusky showering with a boy — one of those who testified against him — was investigated by university police but no charges were filed. A graduate assistant, Mike McQueary, witnessed a different incident in the team shower in 2001 and notified Paterno and other high-ranking school officials, but once again nothing was done and the police were not called.
Joe Paterno’s legacy as a formerly highly respected college football coach was irrevocably tarnished as a result of his employing Sandusky as his defensive coach for many years and then looking the other way when Sandusky continued to bring boys to the campus despite having been barred from doing so. Paterno died in January 2012, but criminal charges for an alleged cover-up are still pending against three others: former president Graham Spanier, retired vice president Gary Schultz and retired athletic director Tim Curley. All three naturally deny the allegations.
Paterno’s statue outside the football stadium was taken down after the scandal broke.
The school has spent nearly $50 million on the Sandusky scandal, not including the payments to the victims and accusers, which are just now beginning.