By Kevin Johnson, USA TODAY

Updated


BELLEFONTE, Pa. – The defense of Jerry Sandusky opened Monday with two former Penn State assistant football coaches telling jurors that it was not uncommon for coaches to shower with young children following workouts and other physical activities.
By Gene J. Puskar, AP
Former Penn State University assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky arrives Monday at the Centre County Courthouse in Bellefonte, Pa.



One of them, Richard Anderson, a long-time friend of Sandusky, said he recalled seeing the coach in the university shower room with a young boy but that nothing "inappropriate" took place.
Anderson said that young boys often accompanied Sandusky to football games along with Sandusky's family. He said Sandusky spent a lot of time with children related to Sandusky's charity, The Second Mile.
Anderson also said that college football coaching responsibilities were so extensive that it left little time for family or outside activities. He said Penn State coaches generally worked up to 17 hours a day, at least four days a week, and frequently traveled outside of the area on recruiting trips in the off-season.
"Jerry had a great reputation," he said. He was "well thought of in every regard."
Anderson said that it was "part of my life" to be in locker rooms showering with either fellow coaches or young people.
Many of the 51 criminal counts against Sandusky allege that the former coach sexually abused young people in university shower rooms.
Booker Brooks, another former Sandusky colleague, testified that showering with children following physical activities was a "very common thing."
"Were you naked?" defense lawyer Joe Amendola asked.
"I never shower with my clothes on," Brooks said, drawing laughter from the courtroom gallery.
Before the defense opened its case, the prosecution's last witness, the mother of one of Sandusky's alleged victims, said she felt responsible for encouraging her son to visit Sandusky's home. The boy said in testimony last week that he was sodomized and screamed for help.
The boy said that Sandusky's alleged assaults drew blood. His mother testified Monday that her son often returned from Sandusky's home without his underwear.
When she asked him about it she said her son told her he had an accident and threw the underwear away.
Earlier in court the judge overseeing the child sex abuse trial rejected a defense request to dismiss the bulk of the prosecution's case against Sandusky.
Defense lawyers argued that the exact dates and locations of much of the alleged abuse was not specific enough to establish Sandusky's whereabouts during those times.
And in charges related to two of the 10 alleged victims who have never been found by authorities, defense lawyers said there was insufficient evidence to determine that they were underage.
Judge John Cleland denied each of the motions, saying "sufficient evidence" had been presented to allow the jury to consider the charges against the former coach.
Prosecutors dropped one of the 52 counts against Sandusky on Monday because the statute he was charged under did not apply at the time of the alleged illegal contact.
The charge relates to an accuser identified by prosecutors as Victim 7.
During testimony, the man said the offense happened in 1995 or 1996, but the unlawful contact with a minor statute didn't apply until 1997, prosecutors told the judge overseeing the case. Three charges related to the man are still in effect, including attempted indecent assault.
It remains unclear if Sandusky will testify.
Defense lawyers also were prepared to offer evidence that Sandusky exhibits symptoms of an attention-seeking personality disorder.
In court papers, defense lawyers said histrionic personality disorder may explain the intimate tone of his writings and communications with some of the alleged victims.
Prosecutors have presented 20 witnesses in four days. There was graphic testimony from eight alleged victims and witnesses of alleged abuse involving two other children who were never found by Pennsylvania authorities.
The testimony included details about gifts and trips to Penn State games that prosecutors sought to tie to escalating physical contact that started out as harmless affection and morphed into forced sexual acts.
Sandusky, 68, could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted of the charges.
Contributing: Associated Press

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