New accuser files 1st Penn State suit, Sandusky

MARYCLAIRE DALE

Asso­ci­ated Press

PHILADELPHIA — For­mer Penn State assis­tant foot­ball coach Jerry San­dusky sex­u­ally abused a boy more than 100 times, and threat­ened to harm his fam­ily to keep him quiet, accord­ing to a law­suit filed Wednes­day by a new accuser who is not part of the crim­i­nal case.

The 29-year-old, iden­ti­fied only as John Doe, had never told any­one about the alleged abuse until San­dusky was charged this month with abus­ing other boys. His lawyer said he filed a com­plaint with law enforce­ment on Tues­day. He became the first plain­tiff to file suit in the Penn State child sex-abuse scan­dal a day later.

San­dusky has acknowl­edged that he show­ered with boys but denied molest­ing them. His lawyer did not imme­di­ately return a mes­sage about the lawsuit.

The law­suit claims San­dusky abused the boy from 1992, when the boy was 10, until 1996 in encoun­ters at the coach’s State Col­lege home, in a Penn State locker room and on trips, includ­ing to a bowl game. The account echoes a grand jury’s descrip­tion of trips, gifts and atten­tion lav­ished on other alleged victims.

“I am hurt­ing and have been for a long time because of what hap­pened, but feel now even more tor­mented that I have learned of so many other kids were abused after me,” the plain­tiff said in a hand­writ­ten state­ment his lawyer read aloud at a news conference.

The law­suit seeks tens of thou­sands of dol­lars and names San­dusky, the uni­ver­sity and The Sec­ond Mile char­ity as defen­dants. The man says he knew the coach through the char­ity, which San­dusky founded in 1977, osten­si­bly to help dis­ad­van­taged chil­dren in cen­tral Pennsylvania.

The man was not ref­er­enced in the grand jury report that charges San­dusky with abus­ing eight boys over a 15-year period.

His lawyer, Jeff Ander­son, said he believes San­dusky was a preda­tor who could not con­trol his sex­ual impulses toward chil­dren. He harshly crit­i­cized offi­cials at Penn State and The Sec­ond Mile who failed to report their sus­pi­cions and put a stop to any abuse.

“We need to address the insti­tu­tional reck­less­ness and fail­ures,” said Ander­son, who spe­cial­izes in clergy sex-abuse law­suits. “Was it because of power, money, fear, loy­alty, lack of education?”

The uni­ver­sity said it had not yet seen the complaint.

The char­ity said it would respond after review­ing the law­suit, but added: “The Sec­ond Mile will adhere to its legal respon­si­bil­i­ties through­out this process. As always, our thoughts and prayers are with the vic­tims and their families.”

The law­suit was filed hours before stu­dent gov­ern­ment lead­ers and high-ranking admin­is­tra­tors were to par­tic­i­pate in a town hall forum for stu­dents in State College.

The plain­tiff said San­dusky gave him gifts, travel and priv­i­leges after meet­ing him through his char­ity in 1992. The abuse began shortly after­ward, the suit said.

Ander­son sug­gested that it ended four years later because San­dusky was not sex­u­ally inter­ested in older teens.

San­dusky was charged on Nov. 5 with abus­ing eight boys, some on cam­pus. A grand jury said the alle­ga­tions were not imme­di­ately brought to the atten­tion of author­i­ties even though high-level peo­ple at Penn State appar­ently knew about at least one of them.

The scan­dal has resulted in the depar­tures of school Pres­i­dent Gra­ham Spanier and long­time coach Joe Paterno. Ath­letic Direc­tor Tim Cur­ley has been placed on admin­is­tra­tive leave, and Vice Pres­i­dent Gary Schultz, who was in charge of the university’s police depart­ment, has stepped down.

Schultz and Cur­ley are charged with lying to the grand jury and fail­ure to report to police, and San­dusky is charged with child sex abuse. All main­tain their innocence.

Ander­son described Penn State and the char­ity as entwined insti­tu­tions, and charged that both failed to ensure that chil­dren were safe when they took part in trips and activ­i­ties. He declined to say which bowl game the boy attended.

San­dusky took one boy he allegedly molested to the Alamo Bowl in Texas in 1999 and threat­ened to send him home when the vic­tim resisted his advances, the grand jury said.

The bowl proved to be Sandusky’s last game as Penn State’s defen­sive coor­di­na­tor. Once Paterno’s heir appar­ent, San­dusky left after Paterno told him he would not get the head coach­ing job.

John Doe’s law­suit seeks a min­i­mum $400,000 in dam­ages for sex­ual abuse, neg­li­gence, emo­tional dis­tress and other claims. The accuser long thought he was the only vic­tim and was mired in guilt and self-loathing, the lawyer said.

“Now that I have done some­thing about it, I am feel­ing bet­ter and going to get help and work with the police,” the accuser wrote in his statement.

Ander­son declined to spec­ify what sex­ual acts allegedly took place, but he called them “severe.” Nor would he say which police agency his client con­tacted Tuesday.

Police in Philadel­phia and State Col­lege said they were not aware of such a com­plaint. Both the attor­ney general’s office, which led the grand jury inves­ti­ga­tion, and state police said they could not dis­close if a report were filed.

The uni­ver­sity had no infor­ma­tion that cam­pus police received the man’s com­plaint, a spokes­woman said. The uni­ver­sity has turned two other recent com­plaints of past abuse, reported after Sandusky’s arrest, to the attor­ney general’s office.

By Anderson’s count, the grand jury report lists 17 adults made aware of com­plaints or sus­pi­cions about the coach over the years, includ­ing those who knew of a 1998 com­plaint that San­dusky had show­ered with a Sec­ond Mile boy. Police pur­sued that mother’s com­plaint, and com­piled more than 100 pages of inves­ti­ga­tory notes, but no charges were filed.

Had John Doe known about that, he might have come for­ward to a par­ent or coun­selor years ago, Ander­son said.

”Why were so many peo­ple, for so long, mak­ing choices that pro­tected the insti­tu­tions and not the chil­dren?” Ander­son asked. “It’s not just about Penn State, it’s about all of us.”

Posted by AP News on Nov 30 2011. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.