BELLEFONTE - Jerry Sandusky's pattern of targeting young boys from broken homes, showering with them and testing their will with "soap battles" and the "tickle monster" game were the classic grooming behaviors of a "predatory pedophile," a prosecutor told jurors ahead of deliberations Thursday.
"I have 10 souls in my pocket - childhoods ravaged, memories destroyed by this man," Deputy State Attorney General Joseph E. McGettigan said as he moved across the courtroom and stood behind Sandusky. The former Penn State defensive coordinator turned his head and stared at the prosecutor.
"You can't give back the pieces of their souls that he took," McGettigan said, backing away. "Give them justice. Give (Sandusky) the justice he finally deserves."
McGettigan's hour-long closing argument preceded the start of jury deliberations on 48 counts of child sex abuse. Judge John M. Cleland said jurors would weigh the charges in Courtroom No. 2, where they gathered in groups of 40 for questioning during jury selection. They will be sequestered at a local hotel for the duration of the deliberation process. Each will have a separate room. The telephones and televisions have been turned off, Cleland said.
"You do not sit here as the moral conscience of the community," Cleland told them. "You do not have to decide whether Mr. Sandusky is a good person or a bad person. You are the legal conscience."
McGettigan, in his closing argument, said Sandusky had"access to a pool of vulnerable victims" through his Second Mile charity for troubled youth and used the organization's biographical data to find the boys' homes and ensure there were no father figures around.
He enticed many of the eight known accusers with Penn State football tickets, took them to the university's football facility for workouts and then, awkwardly, compelled them to shower alongside him as he washed their hair and caressed their backs, McGettigan said. In other instances, Sandusky pressed his luck like a frisky teenager in his car or basement, grabbing a knee, touching a leg and planting kisses to get the boys accustomed to his touch, McGettigan said.
Eventually, McGettigan said, Sandusky forced at least five of them to engage in oral sex. Two eyewitnesses said they saw Sandusky assaulting two other boys in a football-facility shower but the boys involved in those alleged incidents never came forward to the authorities.
"In this case, you saw the spectrum of grooming behavior and you saw the spectrum of relationships that a predatory pedophile engages in," McGettigan said.
Wesley M. Oliver, a Widener Law professor and NBC News analyst, panned McGettigan's presentation, which meandered at times and included a long-winded explanation of court procedure and a lengthy apology for investigative missteps.
"It was easily one of the worst closings I have ever seen," Oliver said. "To call it amateurish would be kind."
McGettigan criticized Sandusky's attorneys for implying a conspiracy against the former Penn State defensive coordinator led to the charges. McGettigan also dissected Sandusky's delayed response to a question last November during an interview with Bob Costas of NBC.
"I would think the automatic response when someone asks you if you're a criminal, a pedophile, a child molester is, 'You're crazy! You're nuts!' " McGettigan said.
"Justice has been delayed but it is up to you to see that it's not denied," McGettigan said, projecting photographs of the eight accusers onto a large screen across from the jury box.
"That's what this case is about," McGettigan said. "It's about those boys. Not just those boys, two other boys unknown to us."
He then projected a photograph of Sandusky onto the screen.
"This is the man that did it," McGettigan said. "This case is about him."