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| Jerry Sandusky |
updated 12:52 AM EDT,
Thu October 11, 2012
Bellefonte, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- When all was said and done, Jerry and Dottie Sandusky did not ask the judge for mercy. They did not try to extol Jerry's virtues, list good deeds or express regret. Instead, they depicted the boys he sexually assaulted as ungrateful and called them liars.
They blamed the young men -- including their own adopted son, Matt, who now claims he, too, was molested -- for their downfall.
In letters to the judge who would sentence the former coach,
the Sanduskys portrayed themselves as virtuous victims of a vast
conspiracy. They blamed powerful, image-conscious forces at Penn State
University, lying cops, ambitious prosecutors and a scandal-hungry news
media.
The couple's letters were
mentioned in court on Tuesday but not read aloud. Judge John Cleland
and the Centre County courts made them public, and CNN obtained copies. In them, Jerry Sandusky
expressed little sympathy for the 10 boys he was convicted of molesting.
As he wrote about their families, he tried to shift the blame, pointing
out that the boys came from unstable homes.
"Nobody mentioned the
impact of abandonment, neglect, abuse, insecurity and conflicting
messages that the biological parents might have had in this," he wrote.
He said nothing about the damaged lives and institutions his molestation
case left in its wake. READ MORE
