STATE COLLEGE, Pennsylvania — The former U.S. college football coach at the center of a child sex abuse scandal was arrested Wednesday on charges brought by two new accusers, the Pennsylvania state attorney general's office said.
One of the two new accusers claims Jerry Sandusky molested him numerous times in a basement bedroom at Sandusky's home.
The former Penn State assistant football coach now faces more than 50 charges related to accusations he molested boys for years on Penn State property, in his home and elsewhere. The scandal has raised questions about whether officials at one of the largest colleges and football programs in the U.S. did all they should have to stop the alleged activity
Sandusky was taken to a county jail after being unable to post $250,000 bail in cash. His lawyer Jerry Amendola said Wednesday that he had not yet read the latest grand jury report with the new allegations, but said he has no reason to doubt Sandusky's claims of innocence.
Sandusky has denied being a pedophile and has vowed to fight the case. In interviews with NBC and The New York Times, he has said he showered and played around with boys but never sexually abused them.
The case has led to the firing of coach Joe Paterno.
Like earlier accusers, both of the new alleged victims told the grand jury they met Sandusky through The Second Mile charity for at-risk children that he founded in 1977.
"As in many of the other cases identified to date, the contact with Sandusky allegedly fit a pattern of ‘grooming' victims," Attorney General Linda Kelly said in a statement. "Beginning with outings to football games and gifts; they later included physical contact that escalated to sexual assaults."
One of the new alleged victims, called Victim 9 by prosecutors, said he was first assaulted in 2004, and the other, called Victim 10, told the grand jury he was assaulted after being referred to The Second Mile in 1997.
The ninth accuser, currently 18, was 11 or 12 when he first met Sandusky in 2004. Sandusky took him to Penn State football games and gave him gifts and money, and later sexually assaulted him during overnight stays in a basement bedroom in Sandusky's home, the grand jury said.
The accuser said Sandusky forced the boy to perform oral sex and attempted on at least 16 occasions to anally penetrate him, sometimes successfully.
"The victim testified that on at least one occasion he screamed for help, knowing that Sandusky's wife was upstairs, but no one ever came to help him," the grand jury report said.
The 10th accuser told the grand jury he was referred to The Second Mile in 1997, when he was 10 and experiencing problems at home. He also attended Penn State games, spent time at Sandusky's house, and was subjected to "wrestling sessions" in the basement of the home that led to Sandusky performing oral sex on the boy, authorities said.
The new charges include four counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and two counts of unlawful contact with a minor, all of them first-degree felonies punishable by up to 20 years in prison and $25,000 in fines.
Sandusky also was charged with a count of indecent assault and two counts of endangering the welfare of children. Those are third-degree felonies punishable by up to seven years in prison and $15,000 in fines.
Prosecutors had sought $1 million in bail.
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