In the last two days, more information has become public surrounding Jerry Sandusky’s serial child sex abuse and how much his fellow Penn State coaches — including Joe Paterno — knew about it. The latest report says a teenager who says he was raped in a bathroom by Sandusky when he was 15, told Paterno and another Penn State official about the incident in 1971.
The victim, now 62, spoke with CNN’s Sara Ganim about the incident. This victim received a settlement payment from Penn State acknowledging he was a victim, but authorities could not investigate because the rape occurred so long ago it fell outside the statute of limitations.
The victim says that Sandusky, who was 27 at the time and a year into his coaching career at Penn State after playing there, picked him up as a hitchhiker, bought him beer and gave him pot. The victim says Sandusky sneaked up on him from behind at a urinal, and a fight ensued. The two went to the ground in a struggle, with Sandusky coming out victorious and raping the man.
The man, who had foster parents, acknowledged he had a difficult youth. Prior to being raped by Sandusky, he had been molested by a priest and kicked out of his church when bringing up the charge. He told his foster parents about the Sandusky rape after being confronted by them, and they called Penn state.
The victim says he talked to a “Jim” and a “Joe” about the rape. He says the “Joe” was unmistakably Joe Paterno.
The victim says the men on the phone accused him of lying and making up the story.
“They were asking me my motive, why I would say this about someone who has done so many good things.”
Ever since Paterno died in 2012, there have been questions about how much he knew about Sandusky and what he reported to those above him. There was overwhelming evidence that he knew about Sandusky and declined to stop the abuse in order to preserve the program.
On Thursday, a report came out saying Paterno was told about Sandusky abuse as early as 1976. That information came from a victim’s deposition as part of an insurance case against Penn State. We can now bump that up by five years.
In that case, the judge wrote there is evidence Penn State coaches witnessed inappropriate contact from Sandusky and children on campus in ’87 and ’88.
In addition to this new information, NBC News is reporting that more than Paterno knew about Sandusky accusations for several years.
NBC reported that a former Penn State assistant coach witnessed an incident in the late 1970s, and that three other coaches “allegedly saw inappropriate conduct between Sandusky and boys in the early and mid-1990s.”
One football program employee allegedly witnessed Sandusky performing a sex act on his adopted son, Matt, in a locker room in the early ’90s. Matt later publicly accused his father of sexually abusing him.
