69News:Regional: Pennsylvania

Jerry Sandusky moved from county jail to state prison

Wed, 24 Oct 2012 10:53:08 GMT

Jerry Sandusky is now a state prison inmate after his transfer from the Centre County jail.

A state prison system spokeswoman said the 68-year-old former Penn State assistant coach was transferred to the State Correctional Institute at Camp Hill early Tuesday.

Camp Hill is where Sandusky will be processed, tested and evaluated. It'll be a week or more before he's assigned to one of the state facilities as his "home" prison.

Sandusky is serving 30 to 60 years for the sexual abuse of 10 boys over a 15-year period.

He has repeatedly asserted his innocence and last week filed post-sentencing motions. He is seeking to have convictions thrown out or a new trial.

Sandusky asks judge to overturn abuse convictions

Fri, 19 Oct 2012 09:58:12 GMT

Former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky asked a judge Thursday to overturn his child sexual abuse convictions and grant him a new trial, claiming his lawyers lacked sufficient time to prepare and the statute of limitations for some charges had expired.

Sandusky's lawyers filed the appeal at the courthouse in Bellefonte, where he was sentenced two weeks ago to 30 to 60 years in prison after being convicted of abusing 10 boys, some on Penn State's campus in State College. They said there wasn't enough evidence to support convictions.

A spokesman for the attorney general's office said the Sandusky filing was under review.

Sandusky remains in the county jail, awaiting a transfer to a state prison to serve time for 45 criminal counts. Eight young men testified against him in June, describing a range of abuse they said included fondling and oral and anal sex when they were boys.

Sandusky didn't testify at his trial but has consistently maintained his innocence, and his attorneys have repeatedly said they felt they were rushed to trial and swamped by a mountain of documents prosecutors turned over in the seven-plus months between his arrest in November and the June trial.

Sandusky, 68, built a national reputation as one of the country's premier defensive coaches while serving under head coach Joe Paterno, including two national championships. That image was shattered last year by his arrest.

The abuse scandal rocked Penn State, bringing down Paterno and the university's president and leading the NCAA, college sports' governing body, to levy unprecedented sanctions against the university's football program.

Two Penn State administrators were charged as a result of the investigation into the Sandusky allegations, accused of lying to the grand jury that investigated Sandusky and not reporting suspected child abuse to the proper authorities. Those two officials, athletic director Tim Curley, who is on administrative leave, and retired vice president Gary Schultz, await trial in January and maintain their innocence.

Former FBI Director Louis Freeh, hired by university trustees to conduct an investigation into the university's handling of abuse complaints against Sandusky, concluded that Paterno, who died in January, ousted president Graham Spanier, Curley and Schultz concealed a 2001 allegation against Sandusky to protect Penn State from bad publicity.

The late coach's family, as well as Spanier, Curley and Schultz, have hotly disputed Freeh's assertions.

Man says Jerry Sandusky groped him in 2005, according to lawsuit

Thu, 18 Oct 2012 03:45:30 GMT

A 22-year-old man has filed a lawsuit claiming that Jerry Sandusky fondled him at a summer camp on the Penn State University campus in 2005.

The plaintiff, called "John Doe" in court papers, said he was 14 when he attended a camp run by The Second Mile, Sandusky's charity for troubled youths. He said the former Penn State assistant football coach approached him in a campus swimming pool, grabbed his genitals and said, "What have we here?"

"Deeply confused and troubled, the plaintiff recoiled from what Sandusky said and did. He backed away, as rapidly as he could, telling Sandusky he didn't want anything like that," according to the suit.

The lawsuit was filed Monday in federal court in Scranton. The defendants are Sandusky; The Second Mile; Penn State; former university officials Graham Spanier, Tim Curley and Gary Schultz; Penn State's law firm, McQuaide Blasko; the school's former general counsel, Wendell Courtney; and Edgewater Psychiatric Center, the agency that referred the plaintiff to Sandusky's charity.

Penn State and the other defendants knew Sandusky was a predator but did nothing to stop him, according to the suit.

"Plaintiff has suffered deep upset and injury and has been permanently injured emotionally and has been traumatized by the abuse he has suffered at the hands of the defendants," the suit said.

The accuser decided to come forward after Sandusky's arrest.

At least four other lawsuits have been filed by victims or accusers in the sexual abuse scandal. Penn State has said it wants to settle with Sandusky's victims. A university spokesman declined to comment Wednesday on the latest suit.

Representatives of the other defendants did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Sandusky, 68, was sentenced last week to at least 30 years in prison for sexually assaulting 10 boys.

Psychologist Veronique Valliere describes what may be Jerry Sandusky's mindset

Wed, 10 Oct 2012 15:03:30 GMT

After months of being in the national spotlight for sexually abusing young boys, Jerry Sandusky speaks out on his own behalf both on the eve of his sentencing and during his sentencing, proclaiming his innocence.

“They can take away my life, they can make me out as a monster, they can treat me as a monster but they can't take away my heart,” said Sandusky in a taped statement aired Monday night on Penn State Com Radio.

During his taped statement and in court on Tuesday, Sandusky repeatedly proclaimed his innocence and blamed others for his circumstance, something Dr. Veronique Valliere, who owns and operates a violent offender program in Lehigh County, says is commonplace.

“It's much easier to feel yourself as a victim and have other people see you as a victim of the system or of vindictive children or whoever the accuser is than to admit that you've lived a double life,” said Valliere.

Valliere adds support from family members and others can also strengthen the accused to deny any wrongdoing.

“A potential loss of that support system can be very costly to the offender so they will hang out to maintaining their innocence at all costs,” Valliere said.

For someone like Sandusky, Valliere says successfully living a double life for decades may be too hard to give up.

“Their secret and offending life is so hidden that to give that up, to give up that persona or to reveal the secret life is incredibly difficult and the pull of maintaining that is very powerful for them,” she said.

The judge in the case also determined that Sandusky would be classified as a sexually violent predator, mandating that he register as a sex offender if he's ever released from prison.

Victims' attorneys pleased that Sandusky will pay for crimes

Wed, 10 Oct 2012 10:18:59 GMT

Jerry Sandusky's child sex abuse case attracted national attention since the very beginning, and Tuesday was no different.

Media outlets from across the country put Bellefonte back in the spotlight. Everyone outside the Centre County Courthouse did not have to wait long to learn Sandusky's fate.

He was once a Penn State powerhouse, but now Sandusky has been deemed a sexually violent predator who will live his remaining days in a state prison.

Outside, swarms of media gathered as prosecutors celebrated.

"I believe the sentence imposed today was a wise and proper one and it reflected the seriousness of the defendant's crimes," said Joe McGettigan, the lead prosecutor.

McGettigan admired Sandusky's victims who testified during trial, and the three who braved the spotlight again Tuesday.

Sandusky may have been clad in a different type of outfit, but McGettigan said his statements in court Tuesday were the same, "self delusion and cowardice we've seen before."

"He displayed deviance narcissism, a lack of healing for the pain he caused others, and to the end unwillingness to accept responsibility," said McGettigan.

Sandusky's lawyer, Joe Amendola, told the crowd his client re-wrote that 15-minute statement Monday night.

"The purpose of sentencing is to hear good qualities about the defendant, to hear positive things from the defendant," said Amendola.

Everyone heard all that, but not once an apology.

Amendola called it, "a sad day," and said his team is ready to take on the appellate process, and cited a lack of time to prepare for the trial.

"We were literally preparing the night before each day with material that in some cases came in within days of the trial starting," said Amendola.

Sandusky's team has 10 days to file the post-sentence motion.

Many attorneys who represent Sandusky's victims were at Tuesday's sentencing, and said they believe the avalanche of evidence will make the sentence stick.

It was a day many of the attorneys believe Sandusky had coming for awhile.

After all this time though, they could not believe the ignorance Sandusky showed in court, even after all the pain he's caused.

The ramblings of a mad man, and continued manipulation.

That is how the attorneys described Sandusky's 15-minute statement he presented in court, and his actions that left 10 young men destroyed.

"It's truly shocking he will not accept responsibility, acknowledge what he did and help in the healing process for all the harm he's caused," said Joel Feller who represents victims two, three, seven and 10.

Some of the attorneys called Sandusky's sentence conservative, but all were pleased the former Penn State coach, who betrayed the trust of the kids he served, will pay for his crimes.

"My client is pleased the judge recognized the victims' courage and is pleased the day has come for Mr. Sandusky," said Michael Kline, who represents victim five.

His victims went face-to-face with their abuser and painted him as a monster. Sandusky stood defiant, and never once apologized or admitted his wrongdoing.

"The fact that's what he needs to say at this late stage is sad," said Michael Boni, who represents victim one.

Now, almost a year since Sandusky's sexual abuse came to light, attorneys told 69 News their clients are far from healed, but they're standing taller, knowing the man who once showered them with gifts will be far away from the comfortable suburban life he once led, and unable to hurt anyone else.

"My client was determined to come back so Mr. Sandusky understood the consequences this had on his life," said Kline.

Sandusky will spend the next 10 days in the Centre County jail before he's permanently placed.

Jerry Sandusky sentenced to 30 to 60 years in prison

Wed, 10 Oct 2012 09:58:54 GMT

Jerry Sandusky was sentenced Tuesday to at least 30 years in prison — effectively a life sentence — in the child sexual abuse scandal that brought shame to Penn State and led to coach Joe Paterno's downfall.

A defiant Sandusky gave a rambling statement in which he denied the allegations and talked about his life in prison and the pain of being away from his family.

Three victims spoke, often fighting back tears. One looked Sandusky in the eyes at times during his statement.

The 68-year-old former Penn State assistant coach was found guilty in June of 45 counts of child sexual abuse, convicted of molesting 10 boys over a 15-year period.

Witnesses said Sandusky used the charitable organization he founded for troubled children as his personal hunting ground to find and groom boys to become his victims.

His arrest 11 months ago, and the details that came out during his trial over the summer, transformed Sandusky's public image from a college coach who had been widely admired for his work with The Second Mile charity into that of a reviled pervert who preyed on the very youngsters who sought his help.

Eight of the boys he was found guilty of molesting testified at his trial, describing a range of abuse that included fondling, oral sex and anal intercourse. One of the prosecution's star witnesses, former graduate assistant Mike McQueary, testified that he saw Sandusky raping a boy in a locker room shower.

Sandusky has consistently maintained his innocence and plans to appeal.

In a three-minute monologue aired Monday night by Penn State Com Radio that used some of the same language as his courtroom statement, Sandusky said he knows in his heart that he did not do what he called "these alleged disgusting acts" and described himself as the victim of Penn State, investigators, civil attorneys, the media and others.

His statement in court lasted 15 minutes.

Judge John Cleland sentenced him to 30 to 60 years in prison. Under Pennsylvania law, Sandusky cannot be released on parole before the minimum term is up.

"The tragedy of this crime is that it's a story of betrayal. The most obviously aspect is your betrayal of 10 children," Cleland said before the sentencing. "I'm not going to sentence you to centuries in prison, although the law will permit that." Still, Cleland said, he expected Sandusky to be in prison for the rest of his life.

The scandal brought devastation in State College that will take years to fully assess, as Sandusky's victims are pressing civil claims and a January trial is pending for Gary Schultz and Tim Curley, two university administrators charged with failing to properly report suspicions about Sandusky and lying to the grand jury that investigated him.

Soon after the three were arrested in November, the board of trustees fired Paterno, the school's most famous figure and a man who won two national college football championships in the 1980s. Paterno died of lung cancer in January.

Over the summer, an investigation commissioned by the university and led by former FBI Director Louis Freeh concluded that Paterno and other top officials covered up allegations against Sandusky for years to avoid bad publicity.

The scandal also toppled university President Graham Spanier and led to crippling NCAA sanctions against the football team that included a $60 million fine, a ban on postseason play and a reduction in the number of football scholarships the school can award. The NCAA also erased 14 years of victories for Paterno, stripping him of his standing as major college football's winningest coach.

At least four young men have sued Penn State over the way the university responded to disturbing complaints about Sandusky.

Eight legal teams representing at least 20 young men have surfaced, and the school recently announced an effort to settle as many claims as possible by the end of the year.

Jerry Sandusky's prison amenities: TV, wedding ring, dentures, Penn State football games

Mon, 08 Oct 2012 21:26:00 GMT

As many as a half-dozen of Jerry Sandusky's molestation victims will be heard at his sentencing hearing Tuesday, prosecutors said.

A judge will sentence the former Penn State assistant football coach on 45 counts of child sexual abuse. Sandusky, 68, faces the likelihood of a sentence that would keep him in prison for the rest of his life.

Lead prosecutor Joe McGettigan said Monday that the victims would speak at the hearing. Sandusky also is expected to speak and to assert his innocence.

Defense attorney Karl Rominger said the sentencing proceeding may be over in less than two hours.

Sandusky plans to appeal his conviction on charges he abused 10 boys over 15 years, including attacks inside Penn State athletics facilities.

When the hearing is over, Sandusky will walk into state prison with little more than a watch and wedding band. He’ll be able to work a 30-hour week to make a few dollars. He’ll be able to watch Penn State football but not violent movies.

If the former Penn State defensive coach is sentenced Tuesday to a long state prison term, he will find himself far removed from the comfortable suburban life he once led, placed under the many rules and regulations of the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections.

Even Sandusky’s own attorney believes that whatever sentence he gets, at age 68 Sandusky will likely live out his days inside a state prison. Prison officials, written policies and former offenders provided a detailed look to The Associated Press about the regimented life behind bars that Sandusky faces.

Sandusky has been housed in isolation inside the Centre County Correctional Facility in Bellefonte since his conviction in June on 45 counts of child sexual abuse, and he has spent his days reading and writing, preparing a statement for sentencing and working out twice a day, defense attorney Joe Amendola said.

“Jerry is a very likable guy — he gets along with everybody,” Amendola said last week, as he worked with Sandusky to help get his affairs in order, including a power of attorney and updated will. “He’s a model inmate. He doesn’t cause problems, he’s sociable, he’s pleasant.”

Assuming Judge John Cleland gives him at least two years — the minimum threshold for a state prison sentence — Sandusky’s first stop will be the Camp Hill state prison near Harrisburg, where all male inmates undergo a couple weeks of testing to determine such things as mental and physical health, education level and any treatment needs.

Prison officials will assign him a security level risk and decide which “home prison” to send him to.

Although Sandusky’s home in the Lemont area of State College is only a couple miles from Rockview state prison, there is no way to predict where he will end up.

Older inmates sometimes end up at Laurel Highlands, which can better treat more severe medical problems, or Waymart, a comparatively lower-security prison in the state’s northeastern corner.

The roughly 6,800 sex offenders are scattered throughout the prison system, which has no special units for them. Treatment is available for sex offenders, and those who hope to be paroled must participate.

“My guess is he’ll wind up in a minimum-security facility, and probably a facility for nonviolent people,” Amendola said.

A convicted sex offender who spent 10 years in prison, and who works with other released sex offenders through the Pennsylvania Prison Society, said Sandusky won’t be able to keep a low profile.

“You can have some control over how obscure you are as a prisoner,” said the 52-year-old man from the Philadelphia suburbs, who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because of the stigma attached to sex offenses. “You can either make yourself standout, or you can stay closer to the woodwork. There’s no hiding that man.”

The state will provide him with clothes, shoes and bedding, and the first set of toiletries. He’ll be able to bring a wedding ring without gemstones, a basic watch worth $50 or less, eyeglasses and dentures. Sandusky uses a machine for sleep apnea and takes medications.

State prison menus rotate monthly, and two of the three daily meals are hot. Exercise rules vary, but inmates generally spend an hour or more a day in the yard, which might entail walking, playing ball or lifting weights. If he’s at a prison that allows baseball or softball, the bat has to be tethered and secured to the backstop. In the kitchen, knives also are tethered.

Inmates can buy a television with a 13-inch screen for their cells, at a cost of about $275, with prison-designed programming of about 15 channels that costs some $15 a month. The channels include the networks but no R-rated movies or shows with a lot of violence.

He’ll be able to watch college football, including Penn State, when the games are broadcast on ESPN or another major network.

“A lot of guys live for it,” said the man who works with released sex offenders. “Football season is huge.”

Sandusky, a regular attendee at a Methodist church in State College, will be able to go to religious services.

There’s also a shared television in the day room, a common area where inmates congregate when not confined to their cells. The guards usually decide what channel to have it on. Cards are popular, as are dominoes and board games.

If he has a musical bent, Sandusky will have a list of approved instruments to choose from for purchase.

Sandusky, who has a master’s degree, will be encouraged to work, and most inmates do, although it’s not technically mandatory. An inmate’s first job is often in the kitchen or doing janitorial work, while more coveted occupations include maintenance, landscaping, clerical work or tutoring.

The pay barely covers the cable bill: 19 to 51 cents an hour, with a 30-hour work week. Some of that money may go to pay fines or costs, or toward the $10 copay for a doctor visit.

If people on the outside put money on his account, it also can be deducted to pay any fines and costs.

For those who can afford it, the commissary sells snacks, cigarettes and toiletries. He’ll be able to have books and magazines sent to him inside prison, but if personal property starts to pile up, officials will direct him to box it up and send them home.

Most Pennsylvania prison cells are designed for two people, but it’s possible he could end up in his own cell or in a small dormitory.

Visiting rules vary by institution, but all visits last at least an hour, and facilities generally allow two or three visits per week, with five to eight visitors allowed at once. Inmates can have up to 40 people on their visiting list.

There’s another possibility for Sandusky, said Bill DiMascio, executive director of the prison society: They could swap him for an inmate in another state.

“They might even put him in a federal prison,” DiMascio said. “They have some other options.”

If Sandusky writes a book, state law will prevent him from making any money off of it.

2nd man charged with murder in Jackson woman's drug overdose

Wed, 19 Sep 2012 22:41:36 GMT

A second man has been arrested on murder charges in the drug overdose death of a young woman inside her home in April.

Angel Manuel Casanova was charged Wednesday with drug delivery resulting in death (3rd degree murder) and possession with intent to deliver, state police said.

Kate Lynn Gerberich was found dead on Apr. 24 in the bathroom of her apartment in the 300 block of North Locust Street in Jackson Twp., Lebanon Co., said police, adding that an autopsy determined she died of a heroin overdose.

Michael Lee McKinney was arrested in June on charges of drug delivery resulting in death (3rd degree murder) and possession with intent to deliver.

McKinney, 28, was living in the apartment below Gerberich and delivered heroin to her the night before she died, said police, who noted that Casanova, 43, of Lebanon, supplied the heroin to McKinney the same night.

Casanova, who officials said was already being sought by the state for absconding parole, was incarcerated Wednesday on $500,000 bail.

Gerberich left behind a 1-year-old daughter.