Jerry Sandusky, the former Penn State football coach has been found Guilty on 45 of 48 counts. We’ll have to wait a few months till he’s sentenced, but he’s probably never going to leave prison alive…
The Sandusky case while disturbing, was interesting to watch. I took a special interest in the case. It was such a public trial. He had been publicly accused, it was a small town, he was such a public figure. It would be interesting to see if all the publicity negatively impacted the case.
When jurors were selected, I was nervous. They all knew about the case. Over half of them were involved with Penn State in some way. Would they really be impartial?
I felt sad for the victims when it was announced they wouldn’t keep their identities a secret. The defense wanted to try to shame the victims and hoped they would back out of the trial if they were threatened with public exposure. Then, I was so proud of the News Media when they decided that they would choose not to name the victims. They were going to respect that they had been through enough and didn’t need the additional pressure of having their names and faces thrown out. While I have chosen to go public with my story, and am very glad it helped the other girls to come forward, I would feel awful if they were publicly named and they weren’t ready to deal with it in the open yet. I’m glad Australia chooses to protect the names of the victims, even if they are adults when they come forward.
At work we have a wall of televisions playing the news. The Sandusky trial has been huge. It’s been cross examined in the media, the motives of each of the accusers has been questioned, the integrity of those who witnessed it has been examined, psychologists even discussed whether his wife was in denial. It was interesting last night to see on HLN Jane Velez Mitchell talking about Sandusky’s son who admitted that he too had been molested and they questioned how he was able to discuss it on television and not in front of a jury. Well, this is one I can answer. Its one that so many people have asked about me too. I’m not afraid of a camera. It’s an inanimate object. It’s a machine. It’s a piece of equipment. While it may be filming, and you’re talking, you’re really only talking to a person, and then there’s this machine off to one side. You get to say what you want to say, and you’re done. It’s not like being on a stage, or in front of an audience. At most there’s 3 or 4 people in the room. The interviewer, a cameraman, maybe a producer. It’s their job to make sure you feel comfortable. I’ve had a camera around me since I can remember. It’s no big thing. On the other hand, going to court, speaking to a room full of people, questioning you, judging you, interrogating you? Now that’s scary. For me, giving my inital interview to Steve Jackson over the phone and then talking to Peter Stefanovic inside my home, easy. Flying to Australia by myself was scary. But when I went to talk to Tracy Grimshaw, who’s a lovely person, I had Stephen, my publicist, I had Simone, and then there was a skeleton crew. They tried to make me laugh, and I felt pretty safe. However, the thought of going to court, of having some lawyer question everything about me, make me feel like I’m the bad person, question my motives for coming forward, that I’m not looking forward to.
So even though people in Australia say that my case is all trial by media and how he’s going to get off because of a tainted jury pool, I’d like to submit the Jerry Sandusky case to prove otherwise. Here’s a guy who was most certainly all over the news. Not just for 2 weeks, but for the 2 years he was being examined by the cops (yep, the police investigated this case for over 2 years also). They’ve had so many people go on air talking about it, they’ve covered every piece of his life, his past, his dealings. They’ve accused the victims of coming forward for money, or simply to ruin the man. They had a jury who all knew about him and the case. They had all seen the news. Half of them had direct ties to the school. I honestly though he was going to somehow get away with it, having read all the negative things people had to say about my case.
Then, low and behold, the jury, even with all their knowledge of the case, even with being so close to it, they managed to listen to the facts that were presented to them, they listened to the victims, and they made their decision. They found the man Guilty.
My heart goes out to all the victims of this case. I’m so proud of the ones who took the stand and stood up for what’s right. I’m glad that even though the witnesses to the misdeeds who didn’t have the courage to speak against such a powerful man in the past had the balls to get on the stand and say what they needed to say now. I’m proud of the media who respected the victims and told their stories without having to name them.
This case has been a win for victims of abuse everywhere. It gives me hope that my case, and the case of many others going up against their attackers, will get a fair day in court, and come out the other side intact.
