Jurors in Jerry Sandusky’s child sex abuse trial listened again to testimony from a key prosecution witness today as they began their second day of deliberations in the former Penn State assistant football coach’s high-profile case.
The jury deliberated for more than eight hours Thursday before adjourning at the end of a long session that featured dueling portrayals of Sandusky as a ”predatory pedophile” or the victim of a conspiracy between investigators and his accusers.
Sandusky is accused of sexually abusing 10 boys over a 15-year period, using his charity for at-risk youth, The Second Mile, as a source of victims who would be dazzled by gifts, grateful for his attention and – perhaps most importantly – unlikely to speak up.
Sandusky has repeatedly denied the allegations. The defense portrayed him as the hapless victim of a conspiracy to convict him of heinous crimes. They explain the 48 charges against him as the result of an investigatory team out for blood and accusers who willingly played along in hopes of securing a big payday.
Judge John Cleland said jurors would take a couple of hours Friday to listen again to testimony from Mike McQueary and Dr. Jonathan Dranov. The testimony was being read out loud from transcripts.
McQueary told the court he saw Sandusky engaging in a sex act with a young boy in a Penn State shower in 2001. Dranov later testified that McQueary told him a different version of the story that didn’t include the then-graduate assistant seeing sexual contact.
However, McQueary testified that he hadn’t told Dranov all that he saw.
Shortly after the jury began deliberations Thursday, attorneys for Sandusky’s 33-year-old adopted son, Matt, dropped a bombshell, saying he’d been sexually abused by the former coach and had been prepared to testify against him if called to the stand.
Sequestered during deliberations, the jury was under orders from Cleland to ponder only the case placed in their hands.
The jury heard from eight accusers who claim Sandusky engaging in sexual contact ranging from kissing and fondling to forced oral or anal sex.