MSU Red Cedar Message Board

Ross Levitt of CNN tweeted:

BOMBSHELL from the AM session: prosecutors say Dottie Sandusky, Jerry's wife, walked in on Jerry and alleged victim during a sexual act.

Whoa, I thought she was saying he was completely innocent, etc.?

Trial? I thought this guy was just showing them a few wrestling moves?

Agree.

Her silence is complicity in my opinion.

The Espn article says she called to him from an adjoining room, and he came out. She didnt actually see him doing anything, but i sure hope this sicko gets whats coming to him, all the sex he wants in prison.

Care to post the article? Your link is trying to get me to sign up for their on-line service.

and she stayed with him, bc chicks are strange

Yeah, his "personality disorder" = being a pedophile.

His defense attorneys are dumb as hell if they are even thinking of putting him on the stand.

I've seen a handful of tweets about the trial from people in the courtroom I presume. I thought that wasn't going to be allowed?

Ahhhhh yes, following orders. That defense worked brilliantly at Nuremberg.

For those that are interested in the actual argument laid out by his attorneys, from CNN:

"The lawyers said they intend to offer expert testimony from a psychologist who "will explain that the words, tones, requests and statements made in the letters are consistent with a person who suffers from a Histrionic Personality Disorder," according to documents.

According to the National Institutes of Health, histrionic personality disorder is a condition in which "people act in a very emotional and dramatic way that draws attention to themselves."

"The goal of a person suffering from this disorder in writing those letters would not necessarily be to groom or sexually consummate a relationship in a criminal manner, but rather to satisfy the needs of a psyche belabored by the needs of such a disorder," the lawyers write in their motion."

Right, so essentially, what the defense is saying is that he's not doing it for criminal reasons, but because he's a sicko and needs to satisfy his addiction/urge/needs/etc.. So I guess you can't be a criminal if you're a pedophile then according to that logic? Or psychopathic seriel killers aren't guilty of murder because of their personality disorder? Give me a break.

And for what it's worth, if the defense is going to allege he has this disorder, it's going to have to deal with the fact that those with HPD may exhibit sexually provocative behavior. Basically, it provides an excuse as to they "why", but it doesn't make it any less criminal.

Also, it looks like he is going to let Sandusky take the stand (likely something Sandusky wants to do and is adamant about). He basically said his client will testify when he gave his opening statement. Basically, he's tied his hands because if the client doesn't testify, the jury is going to be upset that they were promised his side, but never got to hear it. If Sandusky testifies though, he's dead. He wasn't able to handle the hard questions from Costas and he sure as hell isn't going to stand up to cross-examination by a professional prosecutor.

Especially love this snippet from the defense: "A lot of people lied," Amendola said. Some of the alleged victims have civil attorneys, he noted, calling that unusual." No, that's not unusual at all when a potential witness' privacy is at stake. We saw it just a month or so ago in the Rutgers webcam case. Oftentimes these victims will hire attorneys not to look at potential lawsuits against the defendant (after all, how are they to get paid if the defendant is in prison for the rest of his life?), but because they want to be sure they aren't sued themselves, their privacy is protected, etc. Especially in a high profile case like this, it's not uncommon.

Finally, my thoughts are that because this jury has strong ties to PSU (8 of the 16 members have PSU ties), they're going to go hard on Sandusky because they'll blame him for their legend JoePa's demise. All signs pointing to Sandusky getting everything he deserves in this one, but like everything else in the legal world, a hung jury or a divided verdict wouldn't surprise me.