Lawyer: Jerry Sandusky won't plead guilty
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - Jerry Sandusky's lawyer says he hasn't discussed pleading guilty with his client and that the former Penn State assistant football coach still maintains he's innocent of the charges against him.
Joe Amendola said Thursday that he'd consider "possible alternatives" with Sandusky if new charges are filed that involve more victims than the eight boys covered by the 40 pending criminal counts.
Amendola says Sandusky has never considered a plea in his case.
The 67-year-old former Penn State assistant coach is awaiting a preliminary hearing on the charges.
Amendola says the topic of a guilty plea came up as a "what-if" question about potential additional charges in a recent interview and that if more charges are filed he would only then discuss the possibility of a plea.
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Sandusky was accused in a lawsuit Wednesday of sexually abusing a young boy more than 100 times after meeting him through the charity the coach founded in the 1970s.
Authorities have charged Sandusky with sexually abusing eight boys over a 15-year span, and the state police commissioner has criticized school leaders for failing to do more to alert authorities to the allegations. The ex-coach has acknowledged that he showered with boys but denied molesting them.
On Wednesday, a new accuser who is not part of the criminal case said in a lawsuit that Sandusky threatened to harm his family to keep him quiet.
The 29-year-old, identified only as John Doe, had never told anyone about the abuse he claims he suffered until Sandusky was charged last month with abusing other boys. His lawyer said he filed a complaint with law enforcement on Tuesday. He became the first plaintiff to file suit in the Penn State child sex abuse scandal a day later.
Sandusky's lawyer did not immediately return a message about the lawsuit.
The lawsuit claims Sandusky abused the boy from 1992, when the boy was 10, until 1996 in encounters at the coach's State College home, in a Penn State locker room and on trips, including to a bowl game. The account echoes a grand jury's description of trips, gifts and attention lavished on other boys.
"I am hurting and have been for a long time because of what happened, but feel now even more tormented that I have learned of so many other kids were abused after me," the plaintiff said in a handwritten statement his lawyer read aloud at a news conference in Philadelphia.
The lawsuit seeks tens of thousands of dollars and names Sandusky, the university and Sandusky's The Second Mile charity as defendants. The man says he knew the coach through the charity, which Sandusky founded in 1977, ostensibly to help disadvantaged children in central Pennsylvania.
