09/08/26 08:48:00
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09/08 08:46 CDT Jerry Sandusky to appear remotely for hearing on accuser
recanting allegations of sexual abuse
Jerry Sandusky to appear remotely for hearing on accuser recanting allegations
of sexual abuse
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) --- Former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry
Sandusky was scheduled to appear in court remotely Tuesday for a hearing on a
claim that an accuser wants to recant allegations that Sandusky sexually abused
him years ago.
The hearing is part of the latest bid by Sandusky's lawyers to secure a new
trial for him.
Sandusky, 82, has been serving a decades-long prison sentence since he was
convicted of 45 counts of sexual abuse in 2012, after eight young men testified
about what happened to them as boys. He has repeatedly lost efforts to get a
new trial.
The Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General has said the supposed recantation
is "highly suspect."
The accuser, identified in court documents as R.R., said he was coached
extensively by authorities, that he could "safely affirm details I did not
fully recall," he said in an affidavit filed by Sandusky's attorneys.
R.R.'s allegations were "based on suggestive leading questioning, prosecutorial
coercion and influence, confirmatory bias and memory manipulation," defense
attorneys said.
Sandusky was the defensive coordinator at one of the country's top football
programs under Hall of Fame head coach Joe Paterno. The scandal led to
Paterno's firing, and the university paid more than $100 million to people who
said they were abused by Sandusky.
Authorities said he found and groomed boys at The Second Mile, a charity he
founded for at-risk youth. Sandusky has repeatedly declared his innocence.
R.R., who was 25 years old at trial, testified that when he was 11, Sandusky
sexually abused him in the coach's basement in 1998, a transcript shows.
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