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Court is adjourned for the day in the child sexual molestation trial of former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky. The defense rested its case Wednesday morning without calling Sandusky to the witness stand. Judge John Cleland said that closing arguments will be presented Thursday.
The main defense witness on Wednesday was Dr. Jonathan Dranov. The physician said he spoke to then-graduate assistant Mike McQueary the night McQueary said he spotted Sandusky in a football facility shower assaulting a boy.
Dranov said McQueary was "visibly shaken and upset" the night he later claimed he caught Sandusky performing a sex act with a boy. But Dranov said McQueary did not specifically say he witnessed an assault.
Sandusky's wife Dottie was among the 19 witnesses who testified Tuesday. She defended him yesterday, saying she never saw or heard any sexual abuse at their home, as some of the accusers testified.
The boyhood photographs of the eight men who said Sandusky abused them flashed onto a screen in the courtroom, so Dottie Sandusky could identify them.
Some she said she didn't remember. She described one as being "a charmer," another as being "clingy to Jerry." She called the 28-year-old man dubbed "Victim Four" by the prosecution a "demanding" child.
The man testified last week that while he was on a trip with the Sanduskys, Dottie walked into their hotel room as her husband was beginning to follow the boy into the shower.
Alleged Victim Four said Mrs. Sandusky asked Jerry Sandusky what he was doing in there.
But in her recollection, she had walked in on Sandusky and the boy in an argument in the middle of the hotel room, and both had their clothes on.
She also said she never heard or saw any inappropriate contact with young boys and her husband. When the prosecution asked her if there were any reason any of her husband's accusers would lie, her eyes were wide, and she shook her head as she shrugged.
"I don't know what it would be for," she said.
Tom Kline, a civil attorney for the man known as Victim Five, said the defense testimony was not enough to beat back what he calls the "mountain of allegations" against Jerry Sandusky. He said the only person who could have directly refuted those charges is Sandusky himself.
"And he chose not to do it. And while a defendant has the right to remain silent, the pregnant question in this case is whether exercising that right is going to win him an acquittal," said Kline.
So far, defense attorneys have called on a parade of character witnesses and tried to discredit police investigators. Earlier Tuesday, defense witnesses said Sandusky had an inspiring reputation for helping youth, and boasted such a soft spot for children that he invited them to Penn State football games and spend the night at his home.
The judge is aiming to have closing statements tomorrow, with deliberations beginning that afternoon.
One of the jurors was excused for an illness at the start of Wednesday's session. She was replaced by a female alternate.
Sandusky is charged with 51 counts of abusing 10 boys over a 15 year period.
