Eight teenagers and men are expected to take the stand in a Pennsylvania courtroom today and tell a judge that former Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky either raped them or sexually abused them when they were boys.
Sandusky, the once revered assistant football coach, is free from jail on $250,000 bail while the case goes through the court system. The showdown will mark the first time that he and his alleged victims confront each other over the charges that have rippled through the highest levels of the university.
Lawyers for several of the 10 boys who have accused the 67-year-old Sandusky have said their clients are determined to speak up at today's hearing.
"It's very difficult. It's trying, but it's something that needs to be done to serve justice," said Howard Janet, the lawyer for a 24-year-old man identified in the grand jury report as Victim 6.
"It's an opportunity for him to set the record straight in response to charges by Sandusky and his lawyer that he hasn't been telling the truth and these other young men haven't been telling the truth," Janet told ABC News.
Sandusky's legal team has challenged some of the accounts of the coach's accusers. Last month, Sandusky's lawyer Joe Amendola said that Victim 1 was retaliating against a tough mentor and had exaggerated his story after getting attention from prosecutors.
Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General via Commonwealth Media Services/AP Photo
Amendola also said that Victim 2, who Sandusky is accused of having raped in a Penn State shower, claimed he was never molested. Victim 2 is expected to take the stand today.
The account by key witness Mike McQueary has also been challenged. McQueary was a graduate assistant in 2002 when he witnessed Sandusky allegedly raping a boy in the locker room showers, according to the grand jury report. The boy was bracing himself with his hands against the shower walls, according to the report.
McQueary, who is currently on a leave from his coaching position, left the area and told his father what he allegedly saw, and went on to tell head football coach Joe Paterno the next day, the grand jury report said.
His account, however, has been challenged by a family friend he says he was present when McQueary spoke to his father and claims McQueary said he only heard what he thought were sounds of sex and never mentioned other details.
Paterno, who was dismissed from his coaching position earlier this year, has said he does not remember being told of sexual misconduct.
If the accusers stay true to what was in the grand jury report, they will claim that Sandusky often showered with them, put his hand on their legs during car rides, and showered them with presents, attention and trips to football games. His advances allegedly ranged from soapy bear hugs in the shower to rape in his basement during sleepovers.
Sandusky has admitted showering with boys, but denies any sexual contact with them.
The purpose of today's hearing is to determine whether there is enough evidence for a judge to order a trial.
Some of Sandusky's six adopted children and his wife, Dottie, are expected to be in the courtroom today to support him.
沒有留言:
張貼留言