Trial Notes - Day Seven-Sometimes words are hard to find.

So tomorrow the closing statements will be taking place. I was surprised that Sandusky didn't testify. I think it was a smart move as his interview with Costas was such a blunder. http://www.abc27.com/story/18835614/trial-notes-day-seven  Apparently the defense thought that because Mike McQueary didn't go into details as to what he witnessed Sandusky doing in the shower with that young boy. The boy wasn't being sexually abused. That is preposterous. To me it seemed that he was really shaken up and couldn't find the words to describe what he saw. Not to mention that what he witnessed was so over the top and the implications were so big. I hope the jury saw right through this.

  "When I came in, John was there, Mike was there … Mike was on the couch, he was visibly shaken and upset, John told him to tell me…what he was going to tell me and that was that he had gone in to the Penn State locker room to put away some sneakers…and he had heard some sexual sounds… I asked him what he meant…[he said] ‘Well sexual sounds, you know what they are.'…I said ‘No, Mike, what do you mean?'…he couldn't go on and just seemed to get a little bit more upset." Dranov told the jury that McQueary said something about looking "toward the locker room shower…he made eye contact with the boy…he [the boy] didn't seem scared….an arm reached out and pulled the boy back….[he said] something about going back to his locker…and said a man came out and it was Jerry Sandusky."

I didn't think that the defense put on a good argument. The biggest thing to come out of this situation is that Sandusky is now the poster boy for what a pedophile is. Once we can wrap our heads around the reality that those who sexually abuse children are people you might never expect. The better steps we can take to educate and protect children. The reality is if an adult seems to want to be around children more then adults that should be a red flag. There have been numerous red flags throughout this trial that very few if any person took seriously. Rosie 

Posted: Jun 20, 2012 10:23 AM CDT Updated: Jun 20, 2012 10:23 AM CDT

By Sari Heidenreich - email

BELLEFONTE, Pa. (WHTM) - Court notes from Day Seven of the Jerry Sandusky child sexual abuse trial:
9:28 a.m. – We're told court will start shortly. We believe the reason for the delay is a motion by the Patriot-News to squash Sarah Ganim's subpoena.
9:30 a.m. – Court is in session. Cleland tells the jury, "Despite the delay of getting started, we are still on schedule." Juror 6 was too ill to come in to court this morning so Juror 13 (Alternate 1) is going to replace her. Rominger calls Dr. Jonathan Dranov is called to the stand. He is a friend of Mike and John McQueary.

 9:31 a.m. – He knows John McQueary from working together. Dranov is a medical doctor. He tells of the time he was called to the McQueary home: "It was a night before I was supposed to go out of town, I was working late in the office…and John called me and I guess he had tracked me down because it was in the evening…he asked if I could come over, he sounded concerned, upset…. I stopped on my way home," Dranov said. "When I came in, John was there, Mike was there … Mike was on the couch, he was visibly shaken and upset, John told him to tell me…what he was going to tell me and that was that he had gone in to the Penn State locker room to put away some sneakers…and he had heard some sexual sounds… I asked him what he meant…[he said] ‘Well sexual sounds, you know what they are.'…I said ‘No, Mike, what do you mean?'…he couldn't go on and just seemed to get a little bit more upset." Dranov told the jury that McQueary said something about looking "toward the locker room shower…he made eye contact with the boy…he [the boy] didn't seem scared….an arm reached out and pulled the boy back….[he said] something about going back to his locker…and said a man came out and it was Jerry Sandusky."
9:34 a.m. – After that, Dranov said the conversation went on "in terms of what had to be done or what should be done. Dranov said, "I think it was clear in Mike's mind that this was an incident that should be reported, he knew that it had to be reported and I urged him to contact his supervisor." Dranov said that McQueary fully understood this. He said, "I'm not so sure he needed the advice," (to report the incident) Dranov said. Rominger asked if McQueary described a sexual act. "No he did not, he implied that it had gone on with what he had described as sexual sounds," he said.
9:37 p.m. – McGettigan begins cross-examination. Dranov said McQueary did not describe specifics. Of McQueary's demeanor: "His voice was trembling, his hands were shaking, he was visibly shaken." Dranov said McQueary is not the type of person that is easily shaken. Rominger asks Dranov if it's true that he asked McQueary if he saw a sexual act. "I didn't use the term," he said. "I kept saying ‘What did you see?' and each time he would come back to the sounds and I would say ‘What did you see?' but it just seemed to make him more upset."
9:38 a.m. – Dranov steps off the stand. Rominger calls Henry Lesch from Boalsburg, Pa. He was involved in the Second Mile golf program. He said he was involved in the overall organization. The defense provides them with documents. One is a letter from the Second Mile thanking McQueary for his involvement in a Second Mile golf tournament in June 2003. One is of a photo of McQueary at the tournament but the photo is not dated. Another documents is presented listing the foursomes from the June 21, 2001 golf tournament. McQueary's name is there. On cross-examination from McGettigan, Lesch said the letter to McQueary is not acknowledging that he played in the tournament. Lesh said the list the defense provided was the proposed list; people could drop out for health or travel reasons. "I would recall people who would have played, Mr. McQueary is not one of them," Lesch said.
9:47 a.m. – Rominger calls Patriot-News reporter Sarah Ganim to the stand. The attorneys go to sidebar for several minutes.
10:01 a.m. – McGettigan told jurors that Ganim would not be called but he read them the answer to one question. The question was whether she got the contact information for an alleged victim's mother from an investigator on the case. Her answer was yes.
10:02 a.m. – Tod Rexrode from Pittsburgh is called to the stand. He was involved with The Second Mile from ages 10 to 15. He knew Sandusky. Rexrode said once he moved to Pittsburgh with his mom because of her job and once they moved Sandusky stayed in touch. "I never had a father in my life and he was like a father-figure to me…he just wanted to keep in touch with me to see how I was doing." He said Sandusky would keep up on his grades and take him to football games, etc… He said he stayed at Sandusky's home several times. He is originally from Chambersburg, Pa. He and his mom moved to State College so she could go to PSU. In third grade they had to send letters to people they admired: "What I admired was Penn State football … I wrote letters to the payer and the coaches… I wrote to Joe, I wrote to Jerry." He said Sandusky responded to his letter and that Sandusky reached out to him. Rexrode is now married and has two children. "His reputation is, is being someone that reaches out to people and goes way out of his way…"
10:08 a.m. – McGettigan begins cross-examination. Rexrode said the first time he met with Sandusky was to meet Sandusky's family. He wrote to Sandusky in 1987. McGettigan asked if he was young then: "I wasn't big when I was a kid…little blond boy, yes." McGettigan asked Rexrode how Sandusky knew about his family situation: "When he asked me the question through letters, yes I did tell him my background that I was an only child and didn't have a father." They communicated by letters for a while and then by phone. At this time, Rexrode was living in State College. He said when he was older he worked out with Sandusky but they never once showered together. He stayed in the Sandusky's basement bedroom sometimes. McGettigan asked about Sandusky's behavior when they when it was time for bed. "He would just say hey, It's time for bed, go downstairs he would show me the room…show me where the bathroom was to take a shower and that was it." "I just wanted to thank him for everything he done for me…that's where I'm here today." Rominger: "Nothing inappropriate ever happened?" Rexrode: "Never. "
10:14 a.m. – David Hilton from Lancaster County. He is 21-years-old and met Sandusky through The Second Mile. He met Sandusky in 5th grade at The Second Mile camp. He met him again at a speaking engagement in Hilton's town. "I got a phone call one day and we ended up going swimming…the second time I ever met him…and we just hung out from there." Hilton said has been to Sandusky's home more than 50 times. He traveled with Sandusky to San Francisco for about a week . "He was definitely a father figure. He's helped me out with a lot of things academic-wise." Hilton said he was behind in school because his parents were deaf. He said Sandusky would call him up every day and tell him words, which Hilton would look up in the dictionary. Sandusky got him a membership to the fitness center in his hometown. He said Sandusky got him a job when he was in the eighth grade. Hilton said he would never want to do the academic work. Hilton said the police came to his house three times, the one time they gave him a subpoena and then he saw met McGettigan in Harrisburg. He said the first interview with police was normal, but of the second and third he said: "I felt like they wanted me to say something that wasn't true…" Hilton said, police "said if I was lying that I could get in trouble with like a felony, that I could get in trouble somehow." Hilton said nothing inappropriate ever happened with him and Sandusky. "I've heard nothing but good things about Jerry," he said.
McGettigan begins cross-examination. He asked Hilton what he was like as a kid. McGettigan: "Skinny guy?" Hilton: "Yeah, still am." Hilton said: "No, I have never taken a shower with him, no." McGettigan asked about the police questioning. "They asked me a lot of questions and then they would ask it in a different way to see if I would say it…" Hilton said, "I felt like when the kept asking me they wanted me to say something that wasn't true." He said McGettigan never asked him to say anything that wasn't true. "You were a cool guy…we talked."
McGettingan shows a document. It's a birthday card for Hilton. The poem said: "Thanks for the memory, thanks for beings so warm and friendly, thanks for your special touch, thanks for trying so much …" This was the same poem inscribed in the photo album a witness said Sandusky gave him.
Hilton said his uncle contacted him and said if I ever needed any lawyers or anything that he would contact me. McGettigan said Hilton was contacted by police because his uncle contacted the AG's office. McGettigan asked: "Did you know he called us last night?" Hilton: "Who? My uncle. No."
10:27 – Court is in recess.