2 more men recount time with Sandusky

Former Penn State University assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky arrives for the fourth day of his trial at the Centre County Courthouse in Bellefonte, Pa. CENTRE DAILY TIMES Enlarge

BELLEFONTE, Pa. -- A young man who said he slept over at Jerry Sandusky's home more than 50 times in three years testified Thursday that he felt abandoned because Mr. Sandusky never attempted to contact him when he was sent to a group home.

Identified as alleged Victim 3, and now 25 years old, the Army National Guardsman who spent a year in Iraq told of sexual abuse that occurred repeatedly and also about his close relationship with the former Penn State assistant football coach.

"It made me feel like I was part of something, a family," he testified.

"Did he treat you nice all the time?" asked Senior Deputy Attorney General Joseph McGettigan III.

"Yes," the witness answered.

"Did you like him?" the prosecutor continued.

"I loved him."

Although it did not formally rest, the prosecution is believed to have completed its sexual abuse case against Mr. Sandusky, after calling a total of 20 witnesses, including eight alleged victims.

The defense is to begin presentation of its evidence on Monday and is expected to conclude its case by the middle of next week.

During his testimony Thursday morning, alleged Victim 3 told the jury he was angry at Mr. Sandusky when his mother sent him to a group home and into foster care.

"He never even contacted me. My mom never even heard from him to find out where I was," he said.

The boy was angry and hurt, he said, "that he could just forget about me like I was nothing. I got sent away, and that was it. I prayed he would call me and find a way to get me out of there."

The witness, who couldn't remember the last time he saw his real father, said he viewed Mr. Sandusky in that light.

He met the man during an event sponsored by Second Mile, the charity founded by Mr. Sandusky, and they quickly started to go on outings together when he was in fifth grade.

When he would sleep over at Mr. Sandusky's home, the witness said, the older man would ask him why he slept with all his clothes on and coerce him to strip down to his underwear.

Mirroring the testimony of so many of the other alleged victims, the witness said Mr. Sandusky would join the boy on the waterbed in the basement bedroom, tickle him, and then rub his abdomen and blow on him, the witness said. Then, he continued, the man would touch his genitals. That kind of touching happened frequently during the visits, the young man said.

When asked by Mr. McGettigan if he asked the defendant to stop, the witness said he did not. "I was enjoying the things I was getting too much," he said.

The young man also testified to an incident in a Penn State locker room shower, when he said he tried to shower away from the defendant.

"He would make me feel bad about it," he testified. "That I didn't love him, that I was mad at him."

The witness said that in the shower, Mr. Sandusky put him in a bear hug and washed his shoulders, back, and buttocks.

On cross-examination by defense attorney Joe Amendola, the man said the defendant never forced him to perform oral sex on him, nor did it to him. The witness said he does have civil attorneys but told Mr. Amendola they sought him out.

The prosecution's last witness Thursday was the person identified in the second grand jury presentment as Victim 9.

He is 18 and came to the attention of investigators when his mother called them shortly after the news of Mr. Sandusky's arrest broke in early November.

The teen attended Second Mile summer camps for three or four years and remembered meeting the defendant in the pool when he was playing with other children in 2004 or 2005. Mr. Sandusky asked if he would be interested in hanging out together, and the boy said yes. "He's a well-known guy. He seemed nice."

The witness said he slept over at Mr. Sandusky's home at least 100 times and almost always slept in the basement.

Much like the man who testified earlier, the witness said the defendant would join him in bed. Touching evolved into kisses on the cheeks, and then the lips, before, he said, the defendant started touching the boy's genitals.

He said he told his mom that Mr. Sandusky was "a touchy-feely kind of person," but nothing else.

The young man testified that Mr. Sandusky forced him to perform oral sex on him and eventually began sodomizing him.

The Block News Alliance consists of The Blade and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Paula Reed Ward is a reporter for the Post-Gazette.

Contact Paula Reed Ward at: pward@post-gazette.com, or 412-263-2620.