Sandusky apparently thinks he's the victim

BELLEFONTE, Pa. - A neighbor called the police and wondered if Jerry Sandusky was violating the terms of his house arrest by helping his wife shovel snow out of his driveway. The teacher at an after-school program at a nearby elementary school told an investigator that when children saw Sandusky sitting on his deck, they told her, "That man's out there," and moved away from the windows.

This is Sandusky's life now as he awaits trial on more than 50 charges of sexual assault against 10 minor boys. His name is ruined. Penn State football coach Joe Paterno, his long-ago boss, is dead. The trial date has now been set for May 14 and, in the meantime, Sandusky was in court yesterday seeking to have his bail modified so that he may visit with his grandchildren and with some old friends, and to continue to be allowed to use the deck behind his home.

His attorney, Joe Amendola, said of his client, "Being cast as a pedophile has crippled him emotionally."

Sandusky spoke for a time during the hearing and then made a statement to the press afterward. He did not take questions, instead painting himself as a victim and his neighbors as hypocrites who allowed their children to attend birthday parties in his home in the past but who now say they fear him.

He said: "When [his wife, Dottie] comes home from visiting with grandchildren and tells me that one of them said, 'The only thing I want for my birthday is to be able to see Pop,' I'm sensitive to that. That's why I came today."

He sounded pathetic, talking about how he is unable to see his friends and those grandchildren, and "now I can't take my dog on my deck and throw out biscuits to him."

Of course, to try to get Sandusky or Amendola to see that the neighbors are not hypocrites, but merely thinking people who have read a newspaper, is a waste of breath. And given that Amendola said that there have been no negotiations for a plea bargain, and the quick trial date set by Judge John Cleland, this whole terrible mess is officially on a fast track.

Cleland promised a quick ruling on the issues raised yesterday, which included the change in bail conditions and the prosecution's motion to continue to hold the trial in Centre County but to have a jury brought in from another county.

The television satellite trucks were arrayed around the courthouse in the Victorian downtown, as they were for the preliminary hearing, but the groups of curious onlookers were absent. Inside the courtroom, the 100-or-so seats set aside for the media were not nearly full. As for civilian spectators, there were about five.

The whole matter, just a couple of months after the horrible accusations, just a couple of weeks after Paterno's death from lung cancer, has become less of a sideshow and more or a grim business.

The people in charge of this prosecution, having seen the assignment of a judge from out near Pittsburgh, have now determined that it is just too risky to pick a jury from among the citizens of Centre County. Perhaps they have done research at the local Walmart and determined that the sales of blue-and-white boxer shorts are just too high around here to take a chance.

"It's not that the citizens of Centre County are unable to be fair and impartial," said Joseph McGettigan, one of the prosecutors. Then he spent a few minutes kind of arguing the exact opposite, pointing out how many people in this county of 150,000 likely have some kind of affiliation with Penn State or The Second Mile, the charity that Sandusky founded, and where he allegedly found his victims.

Still, honestly, who within the state is not reasonably aware of this case? That Sandusky was a former Penn State football coach? That he has been accused of, among other things, raping an underage boy in a shower in a university building? That Paterno was fired as a result, as was the school president?

How many counties away would you have to go to find a jury untainted by knowledge of this whole, terrible business? Do they realize that people have cable all over the state?

And, really, what does it matter? As Amendola said: "Penn State is not on trial. The football team is not on trial. Second Mile is not on trial. Jerry Sandusky is on trial."

There are two main theories about the prosecution's motives.

One, that even though thinking human beings know that Paterno had nothing to do with the allegations against Sandusky, the concern might be that the emotions people feel for Paterno could somehow complicate their view of what did or did not happen.

Or, two, that they wanted to take away any chance of a post-conviction appeal by Sandusky on the grounds that a local jury could not possibly be impartial. The judge made it clear to Sandusky that he was losing a chance at that kind of appeal if he insisted upon a Centre County jury despite the prosecution's motion to import some jurors.

Sandusky, with his hands folded in front of him, told the judge, "I don't believe that will matter relative to any place in this state."

Or, as Amendola said later, "Where can we go?"

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