Every day or so, there’s something new coming out of the woodwork in the Jerry Sandusky sexual assault saga. One should expect it, I suppose. The timeline of victims coming forward now appears to reach back to the ’70s. Let’s see if I can keep all the details straight in this increasingly gothic tale.
- Joe Amendola, the Sandusky attorney who (mistakenly) let his client do a TV interview, himself impregnated a teen while he was acting as her attorney. Ok they did get married.
- Quote of the day: When Joe said he’d be fine having Sandusky around his kids, his ex-wife wrote the following on her Facebook page: OMG did Joe just say that he would allow my kids to be alone with Jerry Sandusky?”
- The Sandusky “I-just-like-to-horse-around-with-boys” defense appears to have backfired. Victim advocates report the Sandusky interview is prompting more victims to come forward.
- The Mike McQueary saga, meanwhile, is turning into a twist-and-turn reality show, largely conducted behind the scenes. There are new questions arising out his recent assertion that he went to the police. The problem is that neither campus nor borough police show any record of McQueary talking to them in 2002.
- The New York Times reports that McQueary did talk to police after the 2009 grand jury investigation of Sandusky began. The report adds he was relieved to unburden himself. Is it possible this is what McQueary means when he says he went to the police? One would hope not, but it is more Pennsylvania Gothic if he does.
- As if all this wasn’t enough, there are now reports that fired-head-coach Joe Paterno went to the hospital Wednesday night, for an undisclosed ailment. Update: Paterno has been diagnosed with lung cancer.
Whew, that’s a lot of drama. On second thought, maybe it’s too kind to call this a gothic tale. It’s more like a South American soap opera, with tragic consequences. And for all you Hermans out there, this is an example of some very fine reporting. I personally single-out Sara Ganim of The Patriot-News in Pennsylvania, but there’s plenty of credit to go around.