BELLEFONTE, Pa. – Former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky stunned a packed courtroom and backed out of a preliminary hearing at the last minute Tuesday, avoiding a face-to-face confrontation with accusers who his lawyer said were just trying to cash in by making up stories of child sex abuse.
Sandusky came to court with alumni from the charity he’s accused of using to lure victims, pleaded not guilty and vowed to “stay the course, to fight for four quarters.”
His lawyer, Joe Amendola, then spoke before dozens of news cameras on the courthouse steps for an hour, saying some of the 10 young men who accuse Sandusky of molesting them as children were only out to profit from civil lawsuits against the coach and Penn State.
A prosecutor said about 11 witnesses, most of them Sandusky’s alleged victims, were ready to testify at the hearing.
An attorney for one called Sandusky a “coward” for not hearing his accusers’ testimony and derided the arguments that they were out for money, saying many were too old to sue Sandusky under Pennsylvania’s statute of limitations.
“It makes my blood boil,” said Harrisburg lawyer Ben Andreozzi, who read a statement by his client, identified in a grand
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