Breaking now, waiting for result.
NYT NEWS ALERT: Sandusky Is Found Guilty on 45 of 48 Counts in Child Sexual Abuse Case
Via ABC News:
Former Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky was found guilty today of nearly all of the allegations of child sex abuse leveled against him.
He will likely be sentenced to life in prison.
After 20 hours of sequestered deliberations, the jury of seven women and five men read dozens of “guilty” verdicts as Sandusky stood and looked at the jury with a hand in a pocket of his brown jacket.
Sandusky was found guilty on 45 of the 48 counts against him of sex abuse involving 10 boys he allegedly groomed through a charity he operated. He was led out of court by officers.
Sandusky and his lawyers, along with prosecutors, were summoned to court to hear the verdict. Assembled spectators shouted jeers such as “pervert” as Sandusky and his wife, Dottie, walked into the courthouse lit up by flash bursts.
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Awfully quick for 48 counts. That’s either very good for him or very bad for him. Go, bad!
I am praying for justice for those boys. Sandusky is in the courtroom now w/ two attorneys Amendola
I have the impression that seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day, and throughout every year somewhere on the globe there is at least one religious group praying for our world. Sometimes there are particular intercessions included. Generally, the prayers have to do with the brokenness which manifests itself in so many ways.
I no longer remember how I came to this understanding. Nevertheless, there are times when I derive great comfort that there are persons praying for us at any time, every day. I draw such comfort this evening that all who have, either directly or indirectly, been affected by this sad, tragic event are being prayed for this day and always.
Did the State prove its case? That’s the important thing. If they didn’t, the law says he must walk. Eyewit says Sandusky is a perv. Hopefully, that’s enough. His wife? See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.
Sigh of relief. Another pedophile is taken from a position of influence. Justice is done.
[…] UPDATE: Guilty on 45 counts, not guilty on 3. More at Legal Insurrection. […]
Penn State’s blog reports:
Victim 1
GUILTY 1. Involuntary deviate sexual intercourse
GUILTY 2. Involuntary deviate sexual intercourse
GUILTY 3. Indecent assault (felony)
GUILTY 4. Unlawful contact with a minor (1st degree)
GUILTY 5. Corruption of minors
GUILTY 6. Endangering welfare of children (felony)
Victim 2
NOT GUILTY 7. Involuntary deviate sexual intercourse
GUILTY 8. Indecent assault (2nd degree misdemeanor)
GUILTY 9. Unlawful contact with a minor (1st degree)
GUILTY 10. Corruption of minors
GUILTY 11. Endangering the welfare of a child (misdemeanor)
Victim 3
GUILTY 12. Indecent assault (2nd degree misdemeanor)
GUILTY 13. Unlawful contact with a minor (3rd degree)
GUILTY 14. Corruption of minors
GUILTY 15. Endangering the welfare of a child (felony)
Victim 4
DISMISSED 16. Involuntary deviate sexual intercourse
GUILTY 17. Involuntary deviate sexual intercourse
DISMISSED 18. Involuntary deviate sexual intercourse
DISMISSED 19. Aggravated indecent assault
GUILTY 20. Indecent assault (2nd degree misdemeanor)
GUILTY 21. Unlawful contact with a minor (1st degree)
GUILTY 22. Corruption of minors
GUILTY 23. Endangering the welfare of a child (felony)
Victim 5
NOT GUILTY 24. Indecent assault (1st degree misdemeanor)
GUILTY 25. Unlawful contact with a minor (3rd degree)
GUILTY 26. Corruption of minors
GUILTY 27. Endangering welfare of a child (felony)
Victim 6
NOT GUILTY 28. Indecent assault (1st degree misdemeanor)
GUILTY 29. Unlawful contact with a minor (3rd degree)
GUILTY 30. Corruption of minors
GUILTY 31. Endangering the welfare of a child (misdemeanor)
Victim 7
GUILTY 32. Criminal attempt to commit indecent assault
WITHDRAWN 33. Unlawful contact with a minors (3rd degree)
GUILTY 34. Corruption of minors
GUILTY 35. Endangering the welfare of a child (misdemeanor)
Victim 8
GUILTY 36. Involuntary deviate sexual intercourse
GUILTY 37. Indecent assault (2nd degree misdemeanor)
GUILTY 38. Unlawful contact with a minor (1st degree)
GUILTY 39. Corruption of minors
GUILTY 40. Endangering the welfare of a child (misdemeanor)
Victim 9
GUILTY 41. Involuntary deviate sexual intercourse
GUILTY 42: Involuntary deviate sexual intercourse
GUILTY 43. Indecent assault (felony)
GUILTY 44. Unlawful contact with a minor (1st degree)
GUILTY 45. Corruption of minors
GUILTY 46. Endangering the welfare of a child (felony)
Victim 10
GUILTY 47. Involuntary deviate sexual intercourse
GUILTY 48. Involuntary deviate sexual intercourse
GUILTY 49. Indecent assault (misdemeanor)
GUILTY 50. Unlawful contact with a minor (1st degree)
GUILTY 51. Corruption of minors
GUILTY 52. Endangering the welfare of a child (felony)
Here are the penalties Sandusky is facing for each charge:
Involuntary deviate sexual intercourse – 1st degree felony – 20 years in prison – $25,000
Unlawful contact with a minor – 1st degree felony – 20 years in prison – $25,000
Indecent assault – 3rd degree felony – 7 years in prison – $15,000
Endangering the welfare of a child – 3rd degree felony – 7 years in prison – $15,000
Unlawful contact with a minor – 3rd degree felony – 7 years in prison – $15,000
Corruption of minors – 1st degree misdemeanor – 5 years in prison – $10,000
Endangering the welfare of a child – 1st degree misdemeanor – 5 years in prison – $10,000
Indecent assault – 1st degree misdemeanor – 5 years in prison – $10,000
Indecent Assault – 2nd degree misdemeanor – 2 years in prison – $5,000
Criminal attempt to commit indecent assault – 2 years in prison – $5,000
Now it’s Penn State’s turn.
The thing is, Sandusky will like what they do to him in jail. I hope he gets solitary so he can contemplate the sickness of his ways.
I doubt seriously he will go in general population, at least for some time. He’s too high profile.
He also seems to enjoy power over little boys. I don’t know that it would be the same with a hairy, tattoo-covered Bubba.
In any case, he won’t be able to hurt any more kids by pretending to be a good guy.
A high profile pedophile will have a price on his head in prison. The minute he is incarcerated, other lifers will be looking for the opportunity to kill him. The other lifers have little to lose and would make themselves an inhouse legend by killing Sandusky. This is what motived the murder by beating of Jeffrey Dahmer, the elements being high profile and perceived freak. It’ll take a while before he’s finally situated, and security will be tight, but it always relaxes over time. Lifers can afford to be patient. And there is often a guard or two willing to move a little slower, look the wrong way, or otherwise leave a crack in the security.
How do you know all this and what’s with the orange threads?
lol… No, I’m not actually an inmate. I was absent a few months because a lawyer walked into my office and on behalf of her client offered me an insane amount of money for my little four office practice. I got bought out by a mental health/substance abuse conglomerate, and it took considerable time and effort to finalize everything. In the late 80s, early 90s, I worked as a forensic psychologist in the NC DOC prison system, with a three month pull on death row at Central Prison in Raleigh. Yes, that’s right, the state of NC had me counseling alcoholics and drug addicts – on death row. It took me the three months to get them to see how stupid that was. Counseled six at a time, each in his own temp cell, with me in my own cell in case they somehow got out of theirs. Seven locked sally ports between me and the nearest staff bathroom, two more to the nearest staff coffee pot. Priorities! Anyway, a few years *working* in the prison system taught me a lot. Six feet x nine feet, they’re in their cells 23 hrs per day. Shower every 2-4 days. When the appeals run out, usually in about ten years after going inside, lifers cease to care. Many look for nothing more than an opportunity to hurt somebody.
An “insane amount of money” by mine and Possum Holler, NC standards, mind you.
He got away with it for so long, because good people refuse to believe others will do evil until they incontrovertible proof.
Our system works. Not always, and certainly not perfectly.
Justice? No. This man will not know justice in this life, nor will his victims.
Bizarre post-verdict remarks by the defense attorney. Why would he say something so stupid?
Hopefully the verdict gives the victims a measure of closure and supports their healing.
Some aftereffects go well beyond Sandusky’s immediate victims: boys and youths who need mentors and role models now are less likely to receive them.
The damage Sandusky did was tremendous. And justice hardly moved swiftly here. Hopefully there is some closure to his victims. We can only hope the cycle is not repeated.
I would like to say heythere to those of us here that were on top of this from day one.
There were too many patterns & red flags eg the children’s charity most notably the focus on little boys.
I am truly sorry for the good people of western Pennsylvania .
Now for the Kermit Gossling ‘s murder factory.
Seems as though NYT NEWS ALERT broke judges order to not report the verdict until court was adjourned.
http://twitchy.com/2012/06/22/buzz-did-new-york-times-break-sandusky-judges-order-on-verdict-and-will-the-paper-be-held-in-contempt/
I only hope justice was served here. Kinky Friedman says he’s against capital punishment because of all the innocent people that have been condemned to death. Only recently two of Bernie Fine’s accusers recanted and said they flat-out lied. Just read Dorothy Rabinowitz’s NO CRUELER TYRANNIES to get a flavor of how emotion can so easily trump logic and justice when kids make allegations against adults. Researchers at Cornell have studied so-called “recovered memories” and found them to be unreliable and scientifically unfounded but these are used as “evidence” in court. the list goes on.
I don’t feel all that good about the Sandusky verdict, and didn’t comment earlier because I was not able to articulate why, except with a cynical “justice delayed is justice denied”. The case (cases, really) enrage me. How could this pig be so enabled by so many for so long.
Here’s a partial answer: Sandusky Verdict: When Seeing the World as Good Is Bad.
Next is how Penn State chooses to deal with this. They knew, or should have known, years ago, and did nothing. When Sandusky took early retirement, that should have been a signal of something amiss. Allowing him to keep his locker room privileges appears to make them accessories. I wonder how that assistant coach can live with himself. He thought he saw an older man violating a child and he did nothing. Wasn’t there a chair handy, so he could bash Sandusky? Penn State, and their administrators, have loads to answer for.
Years ago my daughter had a horrible soccer coach, and she quit after one year. She could have played varsity for 4 years, but the coach was a problem. Years later he was convicted of having sex with one of his players. Now a couple of years earlier he had taken a year off from teaching, doing a “career exploration” year, while still coaching. The following year he had coached, but not taught at all. My intuition is that the school administration knew, but was trying to keep things quiet. He was only convicted of having sex with the one player because of the statute of limitations in Wisconsin. For public school teachers, it is about 1 year after the child turns 18. There were other victims.
The dad in Texas had the right idea.
Judge: Why did you keep on hitting him?
Dad: He kept moving.
Yes, Penn State seems to have stuck its collective head in the sand. It seems like every person there in a position of authority went out of their way to turn a blind eye toward Sandusky. This didn’t have to happen this way and they could have stopped this much earlier and possibly prevented some children from being molested by this convicted child molester. But they didn’t. Some sources are already noting that PSU is moving to settle civil suits. The same source estimates they are preparing for up to 20 civil actions from 20 people with a price tag of up to $1 million per victim.
But the money won’t matter to PSU. Even $20 to $40 million is a drop in the bucket to a school of this size. The tarnish to the school’s reputation will matter for some time but probably not long enough. And the people who made these decisions to do nothing will largely skate and move on to other positions while the tax payers of Pennsylvania pick up the cost for their moral cowardice. It’s the way it works. Nobody is responsible for their actions in a bureaucracy…
The Little Rascals Day Care Center in Edenton, North Carolina comes to mind, but so does Salem, Ma, William Kennedy Smith, and OJ Simpson.
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The mechnics bother me, if it doesn`t fit one must acquit. How do you hammer a big peg into a small hole without major damage?
What are you talking about? Someone walked in on Sandusky RAPING a child in the showers at PSU. It is a bit different from the Salem Witch Trials. Just a bit different…
I hope these boys are capable of leading happy lives in the future.
And, in another sad, recent story, I hope the little monsters who bullied the elderly bus monitor are capable of becoming decent people in the future.
One of the Sandusky jurors said the alleged victims were so believable. They corroborated each other. But if they were, as the defense alleged, involved in a big scam, they would of course be plausible and corroborate each other. What about proof? Physical evidence? Other eyewitness accounts? Why didn’t they come out before? What percentage of how many hundreds of kids that Sandusky helped were these kids?
Look at the HYSTERIA at LeRoy high school with young women exhibiting bizarre verbal behavior. Or Salem, Mass. Or the Inquisition.
So it’s okay if Sandusky helps a few kids but rapes a dozen or so others along the way? How many abused young boys would be too many in your bizarre calculus?
Are you suggesting that 10 victims made, 50 charges and a jury delivered 45 guilty verdicts without sufficient proof? Are you suggesting that 10 people, most of who didn’t know one another, somehow conspired against a man? What was the purpose of the conspiracy? What might have been the motive?
How can a rational person reach these conclusions?
“All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.”
For much,much too long, men in Penn State did nothing. And children suffered things they should never have had to endure.
No, WarEagle82, it is not “a few kids” but say 100 a year over 30 years equals 3000 or more who benefited from Sandusky. It is not how many charges are filed but the TRUTH. Blowhards, like you, are always there to throw rocks at the wretches in the stockades or shriek at the those being burned alive at stakes. Don’t punish the crime but the accusation. But I don’t think that humanity must or should be subjected to a tyranny where any shrill accusation must end in innocents being condemned.
Good to know how you approach the matter. Assume the ONLY kids Sandusky molested are the 10 who file charges and that Sandusky “helped 100 a year over 30 years.”
If Sandusky “helped” 3000 kids, molesting and RAPING 10 children okay and a small price to pay (as long as you don’t pay the price).
So, 10 / 3000 = 0.00333 or .3%. Please now tell me how many molested young boys you feel would have been “too many.”
And somehow, after all this, you still think Sandusky innocent? How do you conclude this point? Did all 10 young men conspire against Sandusky and perjure themselves? Did the eyewitness to Sandusky RAPING child in the showers perjure himself too?
What is your relationship to Sandusky?
What is your relationship to NAMBLA?
NAMBLA? That`s hilarious.
Your projecting; your real issue WarEagle82 is UofA football versus PennState.
In your fan(ical) mind Sandusky is guilty because he helped coach your hated rival.
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This trial is not over till these many accusers who never reported anything to friends, teachers, police, parents… get a proper vetting.
If you know as little about Sandusky as you appear to know about college sports then your odd comments are so much more clear.
From my point of view, Sandusky is guilty because a jury of his peers weighed the evidence, including an eyewitness report of Sandusky raping a child in the PSU showers and returned 48 guilty verdicts against him. Not sure what else matters in this case.
But then I’m not sure you are sure what your point is after reading your posts…
Oh, oooh, AU not UA, my bad, sorry.
It looks like an appeal will be made because the defense was not given enough time to adequately prepare a defense. Juror Joshua Harper’s comment that Sandusky’s impassive response to the verdicts was corroboration of his guilt is indicative of the quality of the thought exhibited by the jury. Was Sandusky to perform a Sally Fields breakdown or bark like adog to placate or titillate the jury? The laws are now so stacked that a defense team cannot adequately investigate or challenge accusers. So they were believable and all gave consistent statements. DUH…If, as Sandusky’s defense alleged, the accusers were possibly collaborating to win a big payday, consistency would naturally be the result. Unfortunately, in cases like this, emotion trumps rational thought. That is why so many protections were put in our Constitution. Even now forces want to eliminate a statute of limitations for child abuse. Payday time! Just wait for wealthy 90-year olds to go to nursing homes and accuse them of “acts” from, say, fifty years ago. Payday! (An excellent read is Alan Dershowitz’s IS THERE A RIGHT TO REMAIN SILENT?)
Well, good news, bad news here. There is rational thought here. But the only emotion trumping rational thought appears to be coming from you.
You still maintain that 10 young men, who mostly didn’t know each other until a few years ago, somehow managed to conspire against Sandusky. How do you conspire with someone you don’t know? Conspiracies are difficult things to pull off. Just ask E. Howard Hunt, Chuck Colson, G. Gordon Liddy, H. R. Haldeman, John Ehrlichman, John Dean, and Richard Nixon.
Sandusky may appeal his convictions. Let him as it is his right. But the evidence looks pretty solid after years of investigations and at least one case of eyewitness testimony.
Oh, and you never answered the questions I posed earlier. Those questions are especially interesting now that you mention about statute of limitations on child molestation charges. Got something specific you want to avoid discussing for a few more years?
WarEagle82 – I have nothing to hide, except perhaps calling you a blowhard.
So exactly how many kids could Sandusky have raped before you would disapprove? You’ve got a number in mind, and we know it is more than 10…
Just one, WarEagle82. And this is what could cause a retrial: The prosecution piled on too many charges hoping one would stick and didn’t allow the defense enough time to prepare against this blizzard of allegations. They only had to prosecute one charge and prove it with the defense having a full opportunity to rebut.
Previously, you said only molesting 10 children didn’t offset the good Sandusky did for your alleged “300.” Now, you say one molested child is too many?
And in your earlier post, 45 guilty verdicts weren’t enough to demonstrate guilt. In this most recent post, one guilty charge would have been.
I see you are not constrained by any need to demonstrate consistency.
The point I made was that out of the thousands of kids Sandusky helped, all being children at risk, many juvenile deliquents, it is not improbable that a small number might want to financially benefit from the accusations.
The points you keep making is “blame the victims,” and even worse, you contrive some bizarre calculus in which any good Sandusky might have done trumps THE FACT that he molested AT THE VERY LEAST TEN YOUNG MEN!
I believe, sometimes, the victims are the actual victims and the perpetrator of crimes is actually guilty. And I believe that, more often than not, the jury gets it right. And in this case, they appear to have gotten it right 45 times. And when they weren’t certain beyond a reasonable doubt, they refused to convict.
The idea that Sandusky’s unquantifiable, potential, “good” is greater than the actual, identifiable evil he committed is gob-smackingly unbelievable!
Further more, the idea that the stories of these young men could only support one another due to some conspiracy is lunatic considering most of these young men only met very recently. My Watergate reference would demonstrate just how difficult it is to pull off a conspiracy of such magnitude but you seem to fail to recognize that fact.
Sometimes, a heinous pedophile is just a heinous pedophile. Not sure why you can’t accept that.
I doubt I will return to this thread to check your reply but I am fairly sure you will once again accuse the young men of evil and protest Sandusky’s convictions. Believe what you will. It is a free country and you can be as deluded as you want…