any concept of the kind of trauma that that can produce in a child, much less when we re talking about sodomy and the horrible events that have been described. i think he s very unaware. i have seen this in child molesters before. there is the guy in the raincoat, the evil guy we think about, and then there are plenty that truly in their minds think they re loving children. so you ve seen this behavior before if other cases. oh, yeah. just total denial all the way through it. what they re doing is loving children, not abusing children. reyou re watching msnbc jerry sandusky trial. sandusky the accused in this trial has arrived at the courthouse. and the verdict has been reached in the trial. catherine crier joins us tonight here in the studio in new york. ron allen, nbc reporter is on the ground who has been covering this trial. catherine, the impact of the community has been just absolutely gut wrenching.
right. it is in some ways changed penn state for dare i say forever, but certainly for the foreseeable future because it will be impossible i think for people to think about penn state as much as they would not like this to be the case without thinking about what has happened with this jerry sandusky case because it was that profound. i think that every college president in this country is watching this story thinking, what if this comes to my door with these allegations? allegations brought to administrators from this point on will be handled with tremendous intensity in the education community throughout the country. we understand that the sandusky family, the entire family is there at bellefonte. but ron, you have been in that community. if you could capsulize, you say that they just want to get this over with, but is there hurt? is there anguish? is there anger? is there a wave of emotions that s going through that community and leading up to what
could we ll be one of those. then that is the point i was getting to is if sandusky is acquitted will other accusers like travis weaver be used by prosecutors? they re not leaving this case. they re not leave ago this. no, no, if he s acquitted we will see more charges. the likelihood of a sequestered yir, nowadays the bailiffs are getting really smart. cell phones are confiscated. televisions are turned off. give us insight into jerry sandusky with what appears to be a mountain of everyday and numerous alleged victims. he, of course, has maintained his innocence throughout all of this. when i watch the interviews, he did the new york times over the weekend, the bob costas interview, very uncomfortable, very seemingly unaware of the kind of effect. let s just say it was sort of the tingling and soing in the shower. this man doesn t seem to have
he didn t specify. so the case continues and continues to unravel. even after tonight, once we hear this verdict, there are still civil cases to come, more criminal cases to come, an internal investigation of penn state university. regardless of what happens tonight, this is still going to continue on, but hopefully in the next few minutes or so, we ll know what jerry sandusky s fate is. he faces hundreds of years in jail. given what you have learned about the trial and gathered from other observers, is there anything that you see in the timing of the verdict or the relative speed, slow or quick, that will tell us how it s going to come down? no, i think all that is reading tea leaves. you know, the jury is a very odd jury. there are nine members of the jury who have some close tie to penn state university. a former professor, a current professor, student who i believe is a junior. people who know jerry sandusky, sandusky wanted the trial held here, he had the option to have
that he was in the feetal position on the couch of his house when he first spoke with authorities. this is something that began for your client when he was 11 or 12 years old. did he express fear of jerry sandusky to you during that time when they had contact when he was being abused? well, i think it s interesting the dynamic that he had with jerry. and he testified, in public he felt like jerry held him out as his son. in private, he felt that jerry treated him as a girlfriend. during those times when they were in private, you know and jerry treated him as my client testified, as his girlfriend, that was the difficult time for him. as a young boy, 11, 12, 13 years old, you don t know how to process that when a man is taking advantage of you in that manner. and he was a father figure in many ways too, correct because your client didn t have a father figure in his life? sure. i mean, that s one of the things