Former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky says he is innocent of the child sexual abuse charges against him.
In a telephone interview with Bob Costas for NBC News' "Rock Center" Monday night, Sandusky admitted to "horsing around" and showering with kids after workouts, but he denied he committed any crimes.
"I have hugged them and I have touched their leg - without intent of sexual contact," he said.
Sandusky firmly denied he is a pedophile, but seemed to hesitate when asked if he is sexually attracted to young boys.
"Am I sexually attracted to underage boys? Sexually attracted? You know, I enjoy young people. I love to be around them, but no, I'm not sexually attracted to young boys," he said.
Sandusky faces charges he sexually abused or made sexual advances toward eight young boys over a period of 15 years. When asked if what he did was wrong, he said "I shouldn't have showered with those kids."
His attorney, Joe
Amendola, cast Sandusky as a "big, overgrown kid" and a jock who liked to joke around in the showers during a television interview on CNN.
"Jocks do that, I mean, they kid around, they horse around," Amendola said. "Jerry
did that, but that's a far different thing, saying he got
showers with kids than saying that he committed these other acts which the
prosecution has alleged he did. I mean,
what's going to come out in this case is that Jerry did get showers with
kids."
The New York Times reports that allegations involving close to 10 other suspected victims are being investigated. Amendola said he expects some of the alleged victims to come forward and deny they were abused.
"In two of the cases, two of the more serious allegations, they don't
even have victims," he said. "They don't even have people who are saying 'That this is
what happened.' They have other people
who are saying they saw something, but they don't have actual people who said,
'This is what Jerry did to me'. We're working on finding those people, and when the time comes, and if we're
able to do that, we think this whole case will change dramatically."
Penn State assistant coach Mike McQueary is one of the people who claim they saw Sandusky doing something. McQuery told a grand jury that when he was a graduate assistant in March 2002, he walked into a locker room after hours and saw Sandusky raping a young boy in the showers.
Costas asked Sandusky what happened that night.
"We were showering and horsing around and he actually turned all of the showers on and was actually sliding across the floor," Sandusky said of the boy. "And we were, as I recall, possibly like, snapping a towel and horse play."
McQueary was placed on administrative leave last week after Penn State announced he would not be at the final home game because he had received threats. McQuery told investigators he went to coach Joe Paterno and later met with athletic director Tim Curley and senior vice president Gary Schultz, who had oversight of the university's police department, but some have criticized McQueary for not doing more.
ESPN, however, reported that sources close to the investigation said McQueary did stop what he saw happening, and wrote an email to friends and players saying he did the right thing.
"I didn't just turn and run," McQueary wrote. "I made sure it stopped."
Sandusky insisted there was no sexual abuse that night, but admitted to Costas that he doesn't have all the answers.
"It seems that if all of these accusations are false, you are the unluckiest and most persecuted man that any of us has ever heard about," Costas said.
"I don't know what you want me to say," Sandusky replied. "I don't think these have been the best days of my life."
Sandusky was also asked if Paterno had ever spoken to him about his behavior. He responded with a simple "no."
Paterno was fired last week for not doing enough after McQueary's allegation. Prosecutors said he fulfilled his legal obligation by reporting the incident to Curley, but the state police commissioner was among critics who said Paterno had a moral obligation to go to police.
Curley remains on administrative leave, a move he requested after he was charged with failing to report the incident to police and committing perjury before the grand jury investigating Sandusky.
Schultz, who faces the same charges, stepped down from his interim position and returned to retirement.
Jerry Sandusky
