Jerry Sandusky, the former Penn State football coach convicted in 2012 of 45 counts of sexual abuse, is slated to return to court next month as one of his accusers plans to recant his testimony.
An evidentiary hearing is scheduled for September 8 in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania. According to a sworn affidavit obtained by ABC News, the accuser, identified as Victim 10, is now prepared to testify that Sandusky did not abuse him. Victim 10 was a prosecution witness during Sandusky's original trial.
In the affidavit, Victim 10 alleges that prosecutors influenced his testimony and asked him to revise his allegations against the former Nittany Lions defensive coordinator. He stated that during the pretrial process, he was led to believe that trauma might have fragmented his memory and that he could affirm details he did not fully recall. He was assured, he wrote, that this was common and expected.
The Pennsylvania Attorney General's office is expected to respond to these claims during the hearing. Sandusky's defense team has also filed a motion seeking a new trial, citing that Victim 10's estranged wife is reportedly willing to testify that she believes he was not abused by Sandusky.
Prosecutors from the Pennsylvania Attorney General's office have dismissed these assertions, stating in response to the defense's motion that "what she thinks may or may not have really happened to [Victim 10] when he was 10 years old, or any other Sandusky child victim for that matter, is irrelevant and inadmissible."
Sandusky, 82, was found guilty of abusing ten boys over a 15-year period between 1994 and 2009 through his Second Mile charity. He has maintained his innocence, previously stating in a 2024 interview with The Daily Mail that he was in disbelief about his conviction. "I never ever in my life ever thought about molesting anybody," he said. "I was accused of heinous crimes, which I've never committed. My wife was my only partner in sex and that was after marriage."
Sandusky's arrest in 2011 led to the dismissal of head coach Joe Paterno and resulted in the university paying over $100 million to individuals who alleged they were abused by Sandusky. The defense team's motion for a new trial is based on the potential recantation of testimony and other claims of prosecutorial misconduct.