BELLEFONTE - With Monday's testimony of Victim 4 on the first day of the child sex abuse trial of former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, came documents - letters from Sandusky and "contracts" the accused allegedly wrote up between the two - that possibly spoke as loudly as anything said on the witness stand.
"Some of them would seem like creepy love letters," the alleged victim, now 28, said when asked about the correspondence he reportedly received over the years from Sandusky, who he met while at a Second Mile camp in 1997.
"I know I have made my share of mistakes," one letter began. "However, I hope that I will be able to say that I cared."
Article Photos
AP?photo
In this courtroom sketch, Judge John Cleland, seated at top, listens as Joseph McGettigan III, Pennsylvania senior deputy attorney general, seated foreground-center, questions Victim No. 4, not seen, during the first day of the child sexual abuse trial of former Penn State University assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, far right, at the Centre County Courthouse Monday in Bellefonte.
In another, titled "The Great Pretender," Sandusky wrote of how he pretended to be able to sing but "I can't pretend my feelings for you."
In another, Sandusky starts, "I write because of the churning in my own stomach when you don't care." Another letter Sandusky noted that in there were "highs and lows" in their relationship over the course of its first two years.
"It seemed like you had bought into everything and were doing well," Sandusky continued.
Not all the letters were like love letters, Victim 4 testified.
He said some would simply ask if he wanted to go to a football game and others, highlighted on cross-examination by Sandusky's lead defense attorney, Joseph Amendola, praised the boy for doing well in school and even chastised the young man for not honoring his commitments and living up to his fullest potential.
Victim 4 flatly shot down Amendola's characterization of the letters as those from a mentor who just wanted the young man, whose home life the boy said was contentious, to succeed.
The 28-year-old man testified that the tone and frequency of the handwritten letters from Sandusky as he tried to sever their ties told him it was just another way for the former Penn State assistant football coach to try to manipulate him into spending time together.
It was the same with the contracts, ones where Sandusky portrayed The Second Mile as the sponsor of the contracts, the man testified.
One was called,"The Second Mile Positive Action Program" and was broken into phases, the first between January and April of 1999.
He testified he only signed the contracts to "shut (Sandusky) up."
"I didn't follow through with any of it," he said, an admission Amendola suggested was what Sandusky meant in his letters when he talked about the boy not living up to his commitments.
"Then why didn't I get these agreements until I was trying to leave?" Victim 4 shot back.
One such contract, from January 1999, included payments to the boy of at least $1,000 for college, plus cash in hands and other incentives, like a trip to a bowl game, for keeping with what Sandusky dubbed a unique program designed to help and support a special person.
"The expectation is high and the reward is significant," the contract read.
These standards included three hours each week of study time, attending school, working out or other physical activities such as hockey or soccer three days a week and mandatory weekly visits with Sandusky at least once each week.
Visits were worth $20 in his pocket and $40 toward college, the contract stipulated. Bonuses, such as getting a B-grade or better in a major subject would put $10 in his hand and $20 for post-secondary education.
Lead prosecutor Joseph McGettigan zeroed in on the so-called contracts between Sandusky and the alleged victim and asked Second Mile program director Marc McCann whether anyone at the Second Mile could come up with such contracts.
"Not legitimately, no," said McCann, who explained prospective programs must be vetted and designed with accountability in mind.
McCann also said he had never heard of the contracts between Sandusky and the alleged victim until the investigation into Sandusky's suspected crimes. The Second Mile's liability indemnification form was used so the alleged victim could participate in an unaffiliated golf event, McCann confirmed.
The organization also never paid minors for compliance to a contract, McCann said.
