Jerry Sandusky’s attorneys called the mother of the alleged victim from Clinton County to the stand Tuesday afternoon. The defense wanted to show that she once talked about getting money out of the Sandusky case and hired an attorney to help her get it.
We are not identifying the mother from the Lock Haven area to help protect the identity of her son, so-called Victim 1. While on the stand, attorney Joe Amendola asked her if she ever told a neighbor she was going to make money and get a new house because of her son reporting abuse. She denied saying any of that.
She was also asked about hiring an attorney after the allegations first surfaced. Amendola has repeatedly asked alleged victims about getting attorneys, trying to bring up the idea that they each got attorneys, hoping to make some money through civil lawsuits.
“I retained him to keep the press away from my family, away from my employment, my kids schools,” responded alleged Victim 1’s mother.
The defense never asked that mother about any of the allegations against her son. Prosecutors say he is the reason for this Sandusky investigation after he went forward to officials at Central Mountain High School in Clinton County to claim he had been abused by Sandusky.
Immediately after alleged Victim 1’s mom was on the stand, a former neighbor took the stand. We again will not identify that neighbor, because it could help identify alleged Victim 1. That neighbor said he used to live other side of a home where the alleged victim, his mother and family lived in Lock Haven.
That neighbor testified that back in 2008 he overheard a fight between alleged Victim 1 and his mother. The neighbor said the mom wanted the boy to spend time with Jerry Sandusky on a weekend. The teen didn’t want to go and wanted to be with friends instead.
Not long after that fight, the neighbor said the alleged victim’s mother came to him and asked how to find out if someone was registered as a sex offender. He said she referred to Sandusky touching her boy. That neighbor told jurors the mom referred to Sandusky and said, “I’ll own his house.”
He said she told him, “when this all settles out, I’ll have a nice big house in the country with a fence and my dogs can run free.”
That neighbor also testified that the alleged victim himself told him, “when this is over, I’ll have a new Jeep.”
Before that neighbor took the stand, the alleged victim’s mother told jurors that she had trusted him with a new address after she moved to get away from the many reporters who were showing up at her home. She said he wasn’t supposed to share that, but did give it to members of the media who found where she and her son were living. She testified that neighbor even tried to get some money in exchange for the information about her new address.
