Jerry Sandusky just scrapped one courtroom maneuver so he can pursue another. The former Penn State assistant coach, serving 30 to 60 years for child sexual abuse, appeared by video in a Pennsylvania courtroom Tuesday to drop a key appeal claim tied to a witness who had recanted his accusations, ESPN reports. That witness, Ryan Rittmeyer—known as Victim 10 at trial—later said investigators pushed him to say Sandusky abused him and suggested he'd be compensated.
Jerry Russo, Sandusky's attorney, called abandoning the recantation "strategy," noting state courts generally look skeptically on such reversals and saying they plan to focus instead on claims prosecutors withheld potentially favorable evidence. "If you believe Jerry Sandusky was fairly treated by the court, then you're not going to hear what I have to say," Russo said, per ESPN. "Read the record and you will understand why I believe he's innocent," the attorney said. "That's why I took this case."
By withdrawing the recantation, Sandusky gives up the right to use it in state or federal court as he looks to higher courts for a new trial. The hearing was the 82-year-old's first public appearance since 2019. The New York Times reports that he appeared "visibly gaunt" and offered mostly one-word answers during the 40-minute hearing. "He's got heart issues. He's delayed a heart surgery," Russo said after the hearing. "He's feeble and frail."
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
