Sandusky Trial Underway

A courtroom in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, set the stage for opening statements earlier today, creating heavy emotion when Prosecutor Joseph E. McGettigan, III displayed pictures of Jerry Sandusky's alleged victims . Known only by number previously, the photos captured each young man at the approximate age that he first met Sandusky at Second Mile, the charity he founded for at-risk children. Sandusky is accused of 52 counts of child molestation on 10 boys over several years.

Former assistant football coach Mike McQueary will testify that he saw Sandusky, the team's defensive coordinator, in a shower doing something of a sexual nature with a boy in 2001. McQueary, a graduate assistant at the time, reported the incident to Coach Joe Paterno who informed Penn State officials. Former Penn State President, Graham Spanier, resigned under pressure after the scandal broke.

Eight of the alleged victims will also testify as to the nature of the abuse and the length of time that it occurred. An effort to protect their identities failed, and they must testify using their real names rather than pseudonyms.

In his opening statement, Sandusky's attorney Joe Amendola revealed that his client will take the stand in his own defense. Amendola tried to lessen the impact of the victims' future testimony by stating that some of the boys maintained a relationship with Sandusky for years after the alleged abuse and took years to report it. Shades of the debacle involving several Catholic priests in this country! The shame that victims feel often prevent them from reporting the crime until much later.

He will also attempt to mitigate McQueary's testimony by saying that McQueary assumed that he only assumed Sandusky was performing a sexual act on the boy. He will assert that the two were just "horsing around." Ham on Wry wonders why any adult would consider it appropriate to be in the shower with a young boy when both wore no clothes.

Ham on Wry views this entire situation as a horrible tragedy. In addition to the people directly involved, the scandal has forced Second Mile to close and transfer its assets and programs to a Texas charity that will continue its mission. No matter what the outcome of the trial, no one really wins.