The defense in Jerry Sandusky's child sex abuse trial rested on its third day Wednesday without calling the former Penn State assistant coach to dispute charges that he molested boys at his home and on campus over more than a decade.
Closing arguments were set for Thursday in the case that led to the dismissal of Hall of Fame football coach Joe Paterno, the ouster of the university president and a re-examination of college administrators' role in reporting abuse charges.
The defense called only four new witnesses Wednesday, including a physician who they used to try and poke holes in the story of a Penn State coaching assistant who testified that he saw Sandusky sexually assault a boy in the campus showers more than a decade ago.
The defense's case has consisted of character witnesses who defended Sandusky's reputation, a psychologist who said Sandusky had a personality disorder and the ex-coach's wife, who said she did not see her husband do anything inappropriate with the accusers. His lawyers showed that an investigator had shared information with an accuser about other alleged victims' stories and repeatedly suggested that accusers have financial motivations for their claims.
Sandusky was only heard from via a November interview with NBC's Bob Costas, saying he probably shouldn't have showered with boys; and in letters he wrote to one of his accusers.
Sandusky is charged with 51 criminal counts for the alleged abuse of 10 boys over 15 years.
One of the last witnesses called was Dr. Jonathan Dranov, a physician summoned to the home of Mike McQueary's father in February 2001 to hear McQueary's account of seeing Sandusky sexually assaulting a boy in the campus showers. The boy, known only as Victim 2, has never been identified and isn't known to prosecutors.
Dranov testified that McQueary told of hearing ''sexual sounds'' and seeing a boy in the shower before an arm reached around to pull him out of view. McQueary said he made eye contact with the boy and Sandusky later emerged from the showers, Dranov said.
That account is different from what McQueary told a grand jury and testified to at a preliminary hearing and at the trial. He has said he saw Sandusky directly behind the boy's back, moving his midsection enough to convince McQueary it was a sex act.
Dranov told the jury that McQueary described hearing sounds he considered sexual in nature but did not provide him with a graphic description of what he saw.
''It just seemed to make him upset so I backed off that,'' Dranov said.
Asked to describe McQueary's demeanor, Dranov said: ''His voice was trembling. His hands were shaking. He was visibly shaken,'' Dranov said.
McQueary's report to his superiors - and Penn State officials' failure to go to outside law enforcement - led to the firing of Paterno, who died of cancer in January.
McQueary had testified earlier in the trial that he wasn't ''over-descriptive'' in his conversation with Dranov, saying he told the doctor that what he saw was sexual, wrong and perverse.
Closing arguments were set for Thursday in the case that led to the dismissal of Hall of Fame football coach Joe Paterno, the ouster of the university president and a re-examination of college administrators' role in reporting abuse charges.
The defense called only four new witnesses Wednesday, including a physician who they used to try and poke holes in the story of a Penn State coaching assistant who testified that he saw Sandusky sexually assault a boy in the campus showers more than a decade ago.
The defense's case has consisted of character witnesses who defended Sandusky's reputation, a psychologist who said Sandusky had a personality disorder and the ex-coach's wife, who said she did not see her husband do anything inappropriate with the accusers. His lawyers showed that an investigator had shared information with an accuser about other alleged victims' stories and repeatedly suggested that accusers have financial motivations for their claims.
Sandusky was only heard from via a November interview with NBC's Bob Costas, saying he probably shouldn't have showered with boys; and in letters he wrote to one of his accusers.
Sandusky is charged with 51 criminal counts for the alleged abuse of 10 boys over 15 years.
One of the last witnesses called was Dr. Jonathan Dranov, a physician summoned to the home of Mike McQueary's father in February 2001 to hear McQueary's account of seeing Sandusky sexually assaulting a boy in the campus showers. The boy, known only as Victim 2, has never been identified and isn't known to prosecutors.
Dranov testified that McQueary told of hearing ''sexual sounds'' and seeing a boy in the shower before an arm reached around to pull him out of view. McQueary said he made eye contact with the boy and Sandusky later emerged from the showers, Dranov said.
That account is different from what McQueary told a grand jury and testified to at a preliminary hearing and at the trial. He has said he saw Sandusky directly behind the boy's back, moving his midsection enough to convince McQueary it was a sex act.
Dranov told the jury that McQueary described hearing sounds he considered sexual in nature but did not provide him with a graphic description of what he saw.
''It just seemed to make him upset so I backed off that,'' Dranov said.
Asked to describe McQueary's demeanor, Dranov said: ''His voice was trembling. His hands were shaking. He was visibly shaken,'' Dranov said.
McQueary's report to his superiors - and Penn State officials' failure to go to outside law enforcement - led to the firing of Paterno, who died of cancer in January.
McQueary had testified earlier in the trial that he wasn't ''over-descriptive'' in his conversation with Dranov, saying he told the doctor that what he saw was sexual, wrong and perverse.