The son of former Penn State assistant football coach and convicted sexual abuser Jerry Sandusky has been arrested on 14 criminal counts, including soliciting sex from a child under age 16 and soliciting child pornography. The charges involve incidents with two girls, one in 2013 and one in 2016.
The alleged sexual abuse crimes were discovered late last year when one of the girls told her father after receiving repeated texts from Jeffrey Sandusky requesting naked photos of her. Both victims say Sandusky used different excuses to try to get them to participate, saying at one point that he “had studied medicine” and another time that he believed Victim No. 1 had shared a nude photo with her boyfriend and he wanted to see it.
Sandusky was arraigned Monday, and a preliminary hearing has been scheduled for February 22. Sandusky is being held in county jail on $200,000 bail, according to the documents.
Jerry Sandusky remains in prison for sexually abusing young boys while serving as an assistant football coach under of Joe Paterno at Penn State. The scandal led to the firing of legendary head coach Joe Paterno and University President Graham Spanier, as well as charges against other administrators.
Jerry Sandusky was found guilty in 2012 of 45 charges related to the yearlong sexual abuse, and he was sentenced to no less than 30 years in prison. Penn State said in 2013 that it had reached settlements totaling $59.7 million with 26 of Sandusky’s victims.
In a 2014 YouTube video featuring Jeffrey Sandusky and his mother Dottie, the two are shown declaring the innocence of Jerry Sandusky. Knowing what we know now (Jeffrey had allegedly already molested one minor girl at the time the video was shot), it is an ominous reminder of the pervasive evil of child sexual abuse and the level of denial that some will seek to keep secrets hidden.