Former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky was scheduled to appear remotely for a court hearing Tuesday concerning an accuser's claim that he wishes to recant allegations of sexual abuse against the former coach. The hearing is part of the latest effort by Sandusky’s legal team to obtain a new trial.
Sandusky, 82, is currently serving a decades-long prison sentence following his 2012 conviction on 45 counts of sexual abuse. His conviction was based on the testimony of eight young men who recounted their experiences of abuse as children. He has repeatedly pursued unsuccessful appeals for a new trial.
The Pennsylvania Office of the Attorney General has characterized the alleged recantation as "highly suspect." According to an affidavit filed by Sandusky's attorneys, the accuser, identified in court documents as R.R., stated that authorities provided extensive coaching, enabling him to "safely affirm details I did not fully recall."
Defense attorneys argued that R.R.'s allegations were a result of "suggestive leading questioning, prosecutorial coercion and influence, confirmatory bias and memory manipulation." R.R., who was 25 at the time of the trial, had testified that Sandusky sexually abused him in 1998 when R.R. was 11 years old, according to trial transcripts.
Sandusky, a former defensive coordinator under Hall of Fame head coach Joe Paterno, was convicted of abusing boys he found and groomed through The Second Mile, a charity he established for at-risk youth. The scandal contributed to Paterno's dismissal from Penn State, and the university subsequently paid over $100 million to individuals who reported being abused by Sandusky. Sandusky has consistently maintained his innocence throughout the legal proceedings.