Matt Sandusky, the son of former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, took part in Happy Valley documentary about his father’s abuse case that explores whether his actions were an open secret.
Matt Sandusky tells the Centre Daily Times that he took part in Happy Valley to advocate for child abuse survivors.
Matt Sandusky took part in Happy Valley documentary about Jerry Sandusky’s abuse case
The 100-minute film is being screened this week at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah. It explores whether it was an open secret that Jerry Sandusky was molesting boys.
Matt Sandusky was expected to be a defense witness at Jerry Sandusky’s trial but instead came forward to say that he had been abused by his adoptive father.
Jerry Sandusky is appealing his conviction and 30- to 60-year prison term.
Matt Sandusky filed for a name change for himself, his wife, and his four children.
This is not the first time that Matt Sandusky has tried to distance himself from his adoptive father, disgraced former Penn State coach Jerry Sandusky .
During Jerry Sandusky’s trial, Matt made a statement after the other victims testified saying that he too was s***ally abused by his adoptive father.
Because the jury had already begun deliberating, Matt Sandusky was not called to go into further detail in the court.
Eight victims testified in court and the stories of two others were relayed for the jurors without having their names released.
Matt Sandusky filed for a name change for himself, his wife, and his four children
Meanwhile Penn State has approved a settlement of about $60 million for the majority of the victims of convicted child molester Jerry Sandusky.
The university board reportedly agreed on the figure during a meeting on Friday but details about the exact break-down of the sum have yet to be released.
Aside from Matt Sandusky, there are a total of 32 plaintiffs who petitioned for financial compensation from Penn State.
The Legal Intelligencer reports that the $60 million settlement covers a majority of those claims, but it does not specify how many exactly or how much each victim receives.
The paper reports, via Deadspin, that “there’s a good chance” that all of the claims will be settled between the school and the victims by the end of the summer.
Jerry Sandusky, 69, was found guilty of 45 of the 48 charges against him.
He was sentenced to spend 60 years behind bars, with the first possibility of parole coming after his first 30 years.
The judge made it clear that even though the maximum possible sentence for the charges was 442 years, he decided that the former coach would spend sufficient time to ensure that he would never be released from the supermax prison in his lifetime.
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Matt Sandusky, the adopted son of Jerry Sandusky, has dramatically accused the former Penn State coach of abuse as a jury deliberates over scores of sex abuse charges against him.
A lawyer for Matt Sandusky said the man told authorities that the former Penn State assistant football coach abused him.
Matt Sandusky, 33, is one of Jerry Sandusky’s six adopted children.
His lawyers, Andrew Shubin and Justine Andronici, issued a statement on Thursday naming Matt Sandusky and saying that he had been prepared to testify on behalf of prosecutors at his father’s sex abuse trial.
The statement says Matt Sandusky is “a victim of Jerry Sandusky’s abuse”, but doesn’t go into specifics.
NBC News reported that Matt Sandusky was to take the stand as a “rebuttal witness” if Jerry Sandusky testified.
Jerry Sandusky’s defense team ultimately decided the 68-year-old former coach wouldn’t speak in his own defense.
Matt Sandusky, the adopted son of Jerry Sandusky, has dramatically accused the former Penn State coach of abuse as a jury deliberates over scores of sex abuse charges against him
Matt Sandusky’s attorney’s told the network: “This has been an extremely painful experience for Matt and he has asked us to convey his request that the media respect his privacy.”
The statement came after jurors began deliberating 48 charges against the ex-coach.
Prosecutors say Jerry Sandusky met the 10 sex-abuse victims through his charity, The Second Mile, which he established in 1977.
Matt Sandusky’s lawyer says his client met with investigators very recently.
Matt Sandusky went to live with Jerry Sandusky and his wife, Dottie, as a foster child and was adopted by them as an adult.
Shortly after Jerry Sandusky’s arrest in November, Matt Sandusky’s ex-wife Jill Jones successfully obtained a restraining order forbidding the children from sleeping at their grandparents’ home.
At about the same time, details emerged that Matt Sandusky had attempted suicide just four months after first going to live with Jerry and Dottie Sandusky in 1995.
He had come into the home through The Second Mile charity, and was first a foster child before being legally adopted.
His name also came up last week during the testimony of one of Jerry Sandusky’s ten accusers.
The man, dubbed Victim 4 by prosecutors, said Matt Sandusky was living at the Sandusky home on an occasion when he had stayed there overnight.
When asked by prosecutors whether Jerry Sandusky ever engaged him in a soap battle in the showers, he recounted a time when he and Matt Sandusky had been playing racket ball.
When they were done, he said, they went back to a locker room. Matt got undressed and got into the shower and then Victim 4 and Jerry Sandusky followed him in there, he testified.
“Me and Jerry came in. He started pumping his hand full of soap,” he said.
At that point, Matt Sandusky shut off his shower and left and went to another locker room to shower, the witness said.
Asked by prosecutors about Matt’s facial expression when the soap battles started, he replied: “Nervous.”
Jerry and Dottie Sandusky married in 1966 and have no biological children together, but adopted six times and have served as foster parents.
The news comes just hours after Travis Weaver, a 30-year-old Ohio man, became the first alleged Jerry Sandusky victim to reveal himself to the public, saying in an interview that he was sexually abused by Jerry Sandusky more than 100 times, starting when he was just ten.
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