Mother of Alleged Victim from Snyder County is Final Prosecution Witness

The mother of the alleged victim who said he screamed for help from Jerry Sandusky’s basement said she made her son go to Sandusky’s house even when he didn’t want to.

The mother of so-called Victim 9 sobbed on the stand as she told jurors she feels responsible for the alleged abuse.  Under her breath, she could be heard whispering, “How can people do that?  How can people do that.”

“I just can’t imagine what happened to him,” the mother from western Snyder County told the jurors.

She said she never heard from her son exactly what he says happened at Jerry Sandusky’s State College home after she learned the boy had been abused.

“I didn’t really want to hear what happened. It’s not that I didn’t want to hear. I just knew it would be tough for him to tell me,” she said.

The mother, who we are not identifying to protect the privacy of the alleged victim, said she worked two jobs back when her son was around 12 and the boy was usually at home in their trailer alone.  She said Sandusky approached her when her son was at a camp with The Second Mile and asked if he could spend time with the boy.  She said she thought it would be a good idea and good influence for her son.

“I thought that was great. He was Jerry Sandusky. He was a very important person,” testified the mother about how she felt about her son spending so much time with Sandusky.

Her son testified last week that he spent many weekends at the Sandusky home over the period of several years.  She said after a while he started saying he didn’t want to go to Sandusky’s house.  She said she told him to keep going because she thought it was good for him, but she said he never told her why he didn’t want to go.

So-called Victim 9 took the stand last Thursday and gave the most graphic testimony of the trial, describing being repeatedly raped in the basement of the Sandusky home.  The young man who is now 18 years old said he would scream for help back when he was 12 and 13.  He said at times he bled after being raped by Sandusky.

On the stand Monday morning, the alleged victim’s mother said that she always wondered why her son’s underwear were rarely in the laundry.  Last week he testified that he “would take care of it,” explaining possible bloody underwear.

“I always wondered why he never had any underwear in the laundry,” said the mother. ”He always said he had an accident in them and threw it out. That was odd to me.”

She said after months of spending time with Sandusky, her son started having trouble with school and health problems.

“His stomach always hurt him and he couldn’t use the bathroom right,” she said.

Last week, her son testified that at one point after being assaulted by Sandusky, he called his mother to come from Snyder County to pick him up and take him home.  She said he just told her he was feeling sick.

“He was waiting for me outside and he didn’t have any shoes on and I remember him getting in the car,” she testified.  ”This was about 11 at night. He said he was just sick and wanted to go home and go to bed and I never asked him questions about it after that.”

So-called Victim 9 came forward after Jerry Sandusky was first charged in November of last year.  His mother testified that after the accusations were first televised on the news, Sandusky began calling her son.  She couldn’t understand why.

“Why would he call my kid after being accused of things like this,” she testified that she wondered after hearing about Sandusky calling.

She testified that her son then reported the abuse to a school principal who called police, beginning alleged Victim 9′s involvement with the Sandusky sex abuse case.