Sandusky jailed amid new child sex-abuse charges

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - Jerry Sandusky was jailed Wednesday after prosecutors lodged more child sex-abuse charges against the former football coach and a judge ordered him held until he could post $250,000 cash bail.

Attorney General Linda Kelly said the two accusers came forward after Sandusky was charged last month with molesting eight other boys since the 1990s, when he was defensive coordinator under coach Joe Paterno at Pennsylvania State University.

Like the others, both alleged victims said they met Sandusky through the Second Mile, the charity he founded for underprivileged children. They claim he turned from a generous mentor and friend into a serial abuser.

"As in many of the other cases identified to date, the contact with Sandusky allegedly fit a pattern of 'grooming' victims," Kelly said. "Beginning with outings to football games and gifts; they later included physical contact that escalated to sexual assaults."

State police arrested Sandusky at his State College home Wednesday afternoon and escorted him, wearing a blue-and-white Penn State tracksuit and handcuffs, to a nearby courtroom.

Citing the charges, Deputy Attorney General Joseph E. McGettigan asked District Judge Robert E. Scott to increase Sandusky's bail to $1 million. Scott settled on $250,000 cash but said that if he posted it, Sandusky must remain under house arrest.

Sandusky's lawyer said the charges were not a surprise.

"We've always anticipated this," Joseph Amendola said. "It's disappointing that the Attorney General's Office chose to do it this way. Jerry has always been willing, and we've made it known to the commonwealth that he's been willing to turn himself in."

Even as Sandusky and Amendola have publicly proclaimed his innocence, recent reports from lawyers and others close to the case have suggested authorities were investigating fresh abuse complaints. But the five-page grand jury presentment, issued with the charges, added new dimensions to the case.

According to the filing, the accusers, identified by prosecutors as Victim 9 and Victim 10, reported that Sandusky had repeatedly abused them in his basement, portraying the room as a private lair for their abuser. Both also said Sandusky frequently told them he loved them.

Victim 9 allegedly testified that he met Sandusky in 2004 at a Second Mile camp, when the coach met him at the pool, talked to him about life and his hobbies, then asked for his phone number. At the time, the boy was 11 or 12.

After getting permission from the boy's mother, Sandusky began taking the young man to Penn State football games and regularly picking him up at school for sleepovers at Sandusky's house.

Now 18, the young man said he thought Sandusky was simply being affectionate. "I took it at first he was just a nice guy, like he went to church every weekend, his kids would come over every once in a while and stuff," the man told grand jurors, according to the presentment. "After a while, like, he got used to me, and stuff, and he started getting further and further, wanting . . . touchy, feely."

The man told grand jurors he was between 12 and 15 when Sandusky forced him to perform oral sex on "numerous occasions" and attempted anal sex on him at least 16 times.

Victim 9 allegedly said much of the activity occurred in Sandusky's basement, where the coach routinely directed him to stay, even to eat meals.

"The victim testified that at least on one occasion he screamed for help, knowing that Sandusky's wife was upstairs, but no one ever came to help him," the presentment says. Sandusky allegedly told the boy "to keep these things a secret."

The second accuser, Victim 10, said he was "a troubled child" who met Sandusky in 1997, two years before the coach retired from Penn State. He said he attended football games and tailgates and dinners with Sanduskys.

One day, he testified, he was wrestling with Sandusky, when the coach allegedly pulled down his shorts and performed oral sex on him.

According to the grand jury presentment, the abuse continued until the day the boy rebuffed an advance from Sandusky and told his mother he no longer wanted to spend time with the coach.

The new charges include 10 counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, indecent contact, and corruption of minors. They come six days before Sandusky, 67, faces a preliminary hearing in Centre County on 40 similar counts stemming from his previous arrest. Amendola and Nils Frederiksen, a spokesman for the attorney general, said they did not expect the new charges to delay that hearing.

Amendola said he hoped to arrange Sandusky's bail by late Wednesday or Thursday.

Sandusky's bail had been a source of controversy. After his initial arrest, District Judge Leslie Dutchcot allowed him to remain free without posting any money or collateral. Children's advocates and legal observers expressed outrage, particularly after hearing reports that Dutchcot was a donor to Sandusky's charity and that its chairman had once hosted a campaign fund-raiser for her.

At the request of the Centre County judiciary, the state appointed Judge Scott, from Westmoreland County, to preside over the case.

Also making his first appearance in the case Wednesday was McGettigan, a former state and federal prosecutor in the Philadelphia area who most recently served as first assistant to Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams.

Amendola seemed to refer to outsiders in his comments after the arraignment. Complaining that he didn't get a warning about the charges or pending arrest, he said neither he nor local prosecutors "do business this way."

Frederiksen dismissed the suggestion the arrest was a heavy-handed tactic. "We obtained a felony arrest warrant and we executed a felony arrest warrant," he said. "That's our procedure."

Still, Amendola said he had warned Sandusky that more charges and a new arrest might be looming. During the arraignment, he said, Sandusky had asked him in court what happens next.

"I said, Don't ask that question," Amendola said. "Don't ask: Can it get worse? Because it can, and we just have to be prepared for whatever comes down the road."

Also on Wednesday, the Second Mile said the fallout from the scandal was forcing it to lay off employees.

"In the wake of the tragic events that have come to light over the last several weeks, the Second Mile has lost significant financial support," the charity said in a statement.

And Juniata College acknowledged that it had rejected Sandusky as a volunteer football coach last year after a private background check revealed he was under investigation at a nearby high school.

Juniata spokesman John Wall said school officials didn't know the nature of the complaint against Sandusky at Central Mountain High School.

According to prosecutors, a complaint from the mother of a Central Mountain teen in 2008 launched the criminal investigation into Sandusky.

"We are pleased that we could get this background check and didn't hire Jerry Sandusky," Wall said. "That's the bottom line."

Inquirer staff writer Jeremy Roebuck contributed to this article.