Focus on Sandusky as abuse trial nears end

Updated at 8:14 a.m. ET

(CBS/AP) BELLEFONTE, Pa. - Jerry Sandusky might finally tell his side of the child molestation allegations in court Wednesday as the trial speeds toward a dramatic conclusion, perhaps as early as this weekend.

Sandusky has been expected to testify on his own behalf since late last week, sources told CBS News. But it's still unclear whether Sandusky will actually take the stand.

The defense will likely call its final witness Wednesday, CBS News chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian reports.

Judge John Cleland has said Sandusky's defense team could wrap up Wednesday, which would mean closing statements taking place Thursday and deliberations beginning that afternoon. The jury will be sequestered until it reaches a decision, Keteyian reports.

CBS News legal analyst Jack Ford, a former prosecutor, told "CBS This Morning" co-hosts Erica Hill and Charlie Rose Wednesday that there's been some disagreement among Sandusky's lawyers about whether he should testify.

"I wouldn't be surprised to see him taking the stand here," Ford said.

(Watch at left)

However, Ford said Tuesday's testimony from Sandusky's wife, Dottie, and a defense psychologist might sway the defense team toward having him not testify.

"After having heard his wife's testimony and the psychologist's testimony they might take a look at this and say, 'You know what? We got all the best we could get in here without the downside of him being on the stand,'" Ford said.

Special Section: The Penn State Scandal
Dottie Sandusky takes the stand in sex abuse trial
Doc: Sandusky has histrionic personality disorder

So far, defense attorneys have called on a parade of character witnesses and tried to discredit police investigators in trying to counter the graphic testimony of eight accusers. Dottie Sandusky has been their most notable witness to date. She smiled as she took the witness stand Tuesday to defend him against charges he sexually abused boys in their home and on Penn State's campus.

Dottie Sandusky said she remembered most but not all of the eight men who have accused her husband of abusing them as children. She told jurors she did not see him have inappropriate contact with them over the years they visited the couple's home or traveled with them.

In a calm voice, she described her 45-year marriage to the former Penn State assistant football coach, but lead prosecutor Joe McGettigan appeared to stump her when he asked why the men might lie in making the accusations.

"I don't know what it would be for," she said, with a slight shake of her head. Early on in her testimony, defense attorney Joseph Amendola, who typically questioned witnesses at the defense table, stood up to question her near the jury box — which put her husband out of her direct sightline during most of her hour on the witness stand.

A large portion of the day's testimony, which included 11 more character witnesses, consisted of the defense psychologist, Elliott Atkins, who told jurors he believes Jerry Sandusky has a personality disorder that might explain letters addressed to one of his accusers.

Prosecutors countered with psychiatrist Dr. John Sebastian O'Brien II, who said that was not the case but that he might suffer from some other problem, possibly psychosexual disorder with a focus on pre-adolescents.

Sandusky is charged with dozens of criminal counts related to 10 boys over a 15-year span. He's accused of engaging in illegal sexual contact ranging from fondling to forced oral and anal sex, and he could spend the rest of his life in prison if convicted.

Dottie Sandusky has stood by her husband, posting his bail, accompanying him to court proceedings and in December issuing a statement that proclaimed his innocence and said that accusers were making up their stories.

Part of the defense strategy is clearly to show that the details of accusers' stories are wrong, but Dottie Sandusky was unable to say with much preciseness how often certain boys would stay in the couple's State College home. She said one of the boys, called Victim 10 in court records, she did not know at all.

She described Victim 1 as "clingy," Victim 9 as "a charmer" and Victim 4 as "very conniving, and he wanted his way and he didn't listen a whole lot."

Victim 9 testified last week that he was attacked by Jerry Sandusky in the basement of the ex-coach's home and cried out for help when Dottie Sandusky was upstairs. She, however, said the basement was not soundproof and she would have been able to hear shouting if she was upstairs.

Dottie Sandusky, who isn't charged in the case, also said the visiting boys were free to sleep upstairs if they wanted to do so. The accusers have said Jerry Sandusky directed them to the basement, where they allege he sometimes molested them.

Police handling of an initial interview with Victim 4 may have helped the defense. Now-retired Cpl. Joseph A. Leiter testified police "never told any of them what anyone else had ever told us" before jurors were played a tape of that interview, in which Leiter told Victim 4 that they had been told by others that oral sex and a rape had occurred. Leiter also said that "in some of our interviews ... we did" tell accusers that others had come forward.

"Each of these accusers was very, very seriously injured, and very concerned, and we had told them — especially prior to going to the grand jury — that they wouldn't be alone, that there were others," he said.

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[Bobcobb1950]

Paterno won alot of gms, but was an ******. He should have spent life in prison knowing that pathetic scum. The scum should get his weenie cut off & then be sent to prison for life with the gen pop.

[Bobcobb1950]

ditto.

[betty42254]

scumdusky defense has rested..He will not testify..Closing arguements tomorrow..Frickin coward is scared crapless..

[dixonpeter]

It isn't too often you get to see someone lying so blatantly as Sandusky. You have to wonder what the psychology is going on inside his head.

[lloydbest1]

I read this article and similar ones from other sources about those testifying as character witnesses. I'm a little leery of all of them. I would have a hard time believing a jury would be taken in by some of that testimony. Fluff and garbage for the most part; in fact, it may have damaged Jerry's case more than it helped.

But moving on to his wife. Gawd! What a piece of work! Either this woman is incredibly naive and profoundly blind to her husband's bizarre entertainment preferences or she's a pathological liar and is guilty of - at minimum - being an accessory herself. She is the next one who needs to be put under the microscope.

I can not condone murder. There are those who would be willing, even eager, to extract the rough justice BOTH Sandusky's richly deserve but that would be just as wrong. Murdering a dyed-in-the-wool pedophile and child rapist - and his accomplice - is still murder. So don't. I mention this only because a "guilty" verdict is not a foregone conclusion. Even if J.S. is convicted on all counts I can safely bet my mortgage there will be appeals filed from here to breakfast and this sordid case could be tied up in one fashion or another for years. In fact, Jerry might resolve it himself by dying of old age. I hope not but I have to ask that we resist the temptation to take care of things ourselves, should he be acquitted and have the faith that justice "will out" in one fashion or another sooner or later.

[betty42254]

Hope he does testify..I would love to see him nail his own coffin shut...

[cynthiascott301k]

Dottie Sandusky's is a seasoned liar. Threw the book at her for her share in not stopping child abuse on the Nation's children... She's a Liar. Protecting her PREDATORY PEDOPHILE husband. They are parthners in crime against the youths of this nation. She is no innocent to the accusation of her husband. What a shame????

[cynthiascott301k]

Thank for this boring experience...I always forgot my p/word. however have a wonderful day.

[winemaster2]

From what can be seen or ascertained the Whole PENN STATE Community in particular all those on the billion dollar Football Program gravy train has with, hear no evil, see no evil, talk not even a bit no evil, with cover up ensued from top down , all have more then histrionic personality disorder. The mouth piece shyster attorney with his soap opera imagination and money being for the should have his head examined first.

The Sandusky's have no children of their own because the football jock father figure has a preference for teenage venerable boys then women or girls. Precisely why the defense paraded a bevy of women clients of the second mile.

One has to wonder why the defense did not include that the Jock Jerry himself was an abused child.

Considering that US College and University Sports Programs under the NCAA tutelage amounts to some $100 billion, this Penn State scandal is just a tip of the iceberg in the realm of these conservative republican macho sports over academic beguiled and misled nation that now stands economic terror besieged, ideologically divided, polarized and on a fast track of self destruction from within.

The real bottom line is that the venerable poor kids were nobody's, society cared much less for them before and now they are just as expendable as the rest of the masses and the system cares less for them being sacrificed with coercion, reckless abandon and impunity.

[mjb89]

There's no accounting for how a jury will vote, but let's hope in this case with all the overwhelming testimony, that they get it right. While I agree that the wife should be looked at very closely, I doubt that anything will be done with her.

[ourweallnuts]

Now either 10 people are lying or Sanduskys family has absolutely no morals. The wife if Sandusky is found guilty needs to go to jail for life for aiding and abetting. I wonder if justice is ever really served in America since in this case the punishment falls far short of the crime.I would hope the families of the abused would take their own justice out on this family if they are actually guilty.