Ever since the publication of science writer Mark Pendergrast’s 2017 book The Most Hated Man in America, there have been serious doubts about the validity of the methods used to convict the Penn State football coach of molesting boys who participated in his Second Mile Program. The charges against Jerry Sandusky were largely set into motion by a single accuser manipulated by his suspicious mother and an unscrupulous psychotherapist who believed he could uncover “repressed memories” of abuse, a phenomenon rejected by mainstream psychology and memory scientists since the 1990s. The prospect of multi-million dollar financial settlements and aggressive browbeating by police interviewers influenced a series of other boys to give similar testimony. Now, one of the key accusers, as an adult, has verified the questionable police tactics by coming forward to admit that he had no clear memory of ever being abused, and was only convinced to testify based on aggressive and repeated police pressure: he was told that other victims were reluctant and his cooperation was needed to stop a dangerous “predator” from hurting other children, and that his inability to remember abuse was a result of “fragmented memory” that is normal in sex abuse cases. Whether this will make any difference will be revealed at a September 8 evidentiary hearing, as Sandusky moves for a new trial.
Key Sandusky Accuser Recants
