Defense rests without calling Sandusky to stand

BELLEFONTE, PA. - Jerry Sandusky has chosen to remain silent. After much anticipation that the former Penn State assistant football coach would directly address the child sex abuse charges against him, his lead attorney, Joe Amendola, faced Judge John Cleland on Wednesday and said, "Your honor, at this time the defense rests."

His voice has been heard by the jury only in an excerpt of the interview he gave to Bob Costas of NBC last fall, shortly after he was arrested.

Closing arguments are scheduled for Thursday morning. The judge will then give his instructions to the seven women and five men of the jury, all of them residents of Centre County. They'll be sequestered during deliberations, which will be complicated by the sheer number of allegations against Sandusky.

Lawyers weigh in

Tom Kline, an attorney for one of the accusers, said that Sandusky's silence means the defense offered "no direct refutation" of the charges. "While a defendant has the right to remain silent, the pregnant question in this case is whether exercising that right is going to bring him a courtroom acquittal," he said.

Several lawyers not involved in the case said it was the right move. Jeff Lindy, who has helped defend Monsignor William Lynn against charges he ignored allegations of sexual abuse by Catholic priests, said Sandusky would not have been able to present himself in a good light. "We saw how badly Sandusky did when he wasn't being cross-examined by a lawyer," he said, referring to the Costas interview. "A really good prosecutor like [Joseph] McGettigan would have eaten him alive."

'Something that wasn't true'

Sandusky's legal team chose a strategy of trying to chip away at the credibility of certain witnesses and suggesting that they were coached by investigators and may be hoping for a payout in civil litigation still to come. Wednesday brought to the stand two men who had been in the Second Mile program. They said Sandusky never behaved inappropriately with them. David Hilton, 21, said that during questioning by investigators, "I felt like they wanted me to say something that wasn't true."

The defense also called a witness whose testimony contradicted that of Mike McQueary, the Penn State assistant coach who said last week he saw Sandusky sodomizing a boy in a locker room shower in 2001.

Jonathan Dranov, a doctor who is a close friend of the McQueary family, went to the home of McQueary's parents the night of the incident. He testified that McQueary told of hearing "sexual sounds" and seeing a boy in the shower before an arm pulled him out of view. That account is different from what McQueary told a grand jury and testified to at a preliminary hearing. He has said he saw Sandusky directly behind the boy's back.

The seven days of testimony were far shorter than the three weeks or so that Cleland had predicted, as many of the 28 defense witnesses were there to briefly vouch for Sandusky's reputation. Prosecutors called 22 witnesses, including eight men, ages 18 to 28, who alleged a range of abuse from grooming and kissing to fondling, oral sex and anal rape. Sandusky has pleaded not guilty to all 51 counts.

The Associated Press and McClatchy News Service contributed to this report.