Jerry Sandusky found guilty on 45 counts of sexual abuse

Provided to ChatyChaty.com by (CNN) — Former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky was found guilty Friday on 45 of 48 counts related to sexual abuse of boys over a 15-year period.

Jurors delivered the verdict around 10 p.m. after deliberating for about 21 hours. There were convictions related to all 10 sexual abuse victims, with the three not-guilty verdicts applying to three different individuals.

Sandusky stood slightly hunched, looking down with his hand in his pocket but showing no visible emotion as the guilty verdicts were read out in court. His wife, Dottie, blinked back tears.

Judge John Cleland revoked Sandusky’s bail and ordered his arrest. Video showed him leaving the courthouse in handcuffs and heading into an awaiting police car destined for the Centre County jail. He didn’t say anything as reporters asked “if he had anything to say to the victims.”

“We knew whatever the jury’s verdict was we would honor it,” said Karl Rominger, one of the defense lawyers. “Jerry rose. I saw tears in his eyes.”

Back inside the courtroom, the young man identified as court documents as Victim 6 was in tears as he hugged prosecutors.

Sandusky should be sentenced in about 90 days, the judge said.

His case gripped the nation and led to the dismissal of a legendary coach and one of America’s highest-paid university presidents, while his trial included gripping and at times graphic testimony from his victims.

During closing arguments, prosecutors described the ex-Nittany Lions defensive coordinator as a pedophile who preyed on victims using a charity he founded for troubled children, repeatedly abusing young boys in his care.

His defense sought to poke holes in the prosecution’s case throughout the trial, such as pointing to inconsistencies in the testimony of Mike McQueary, a former graduate assistant who testified that he witnessed Sandusky apparently sodomizing a boy in a university shower.

Defense attorney Joe Amendola reminded jurors of the lack of physical evidence in the case, accusing the alleged victims of conspiring for financial gain, while also blaming the media for what he described as biased coverage.

Lead prosecutor Joseph McGettigan rebuffed those arguments, telling jurors that “the commonwealth has overwhelming evidence against Mr. Sandusky.”

In a bombshell announcement Thursday evening, Matt Sandusky — one of Jerry Sandusky’s six adopted children — said through his attorney that he was sexually abused by the former Penn State assistant football coach, adding that he had been prepared to testify against him.

Legal analysts say the accusation could bring additional charges, including incest charges, against the former coach.

The broader scandal led to the November firing of iconic head football coach Joe Paterno, the dismissal of university president Graham Spanier and brought charges against vice president Gary Schultz and former Athletic Director Tim Curley for perjury and failing to report the abuse.

During grand jury testimony, Paterno said that he was told by a graduate assistant that Sandusky was in the showers “fondling or doing something of a sexual nature to a young boy.”

The Nittany Lions’ head coach, who died on January 22 after a career that had him widely credited with bringing the program to national prominence, reported the incident to his superiors but did not inform police, the school’s board of trustees said in a report that explained Paterno’s firing.

“We determined that his decision to do his minimum legal duty and not to do more to follow up constituted a failure of leadership by Coach Paterno,” the trustees said.

That decision prompted rioting from Penn State university students, overturning a news van and clashing with police, who used tear gas break up the crowds.

After a week of testimony, during which time witnesses graphically described sexual encounters with Sandusky that they said occurred durijng their boyhoods, jurors made their decision without ever having heard from Sandusky on the witness stand.

If the former coach had testified, prosecutors could have potentially submitted as new evidence a November television interview he had with NBC sportscaster Bob Costas.