(CNN) — Jerry Sandusky’s wife still stands by him, insisting the former Penn State assistant football coach is innocent of sexually abusing young boys.
Dottie Sandusky, in an interview with CNN’s Jason Carroll, blames the news media for the conviction that sent her husband, now 70, to prison on a 30- to 60-year sentence.
“I think Jerry was found guilty before trial,” she said.
Jerry Sandusky, who was convicted in 2012 on 45 counts, has always maintained his innocence.
Why does his wife still believe him after hearing trial testimony from a parade of men who said Sandusky abused them when they were boys?
“Because he is innocent,” she told CNN.
Dottie Sandusky accused some of those who claimed to be victims of seeking money.
The university announced last year that it reached a deal to pay nearly $60 million in civil settlements to 26 different men who said they were abused.
Dottie Sandusky’s latest comments immediately drew responses from lawyers for two victims.
“Mrs. Sandusky is our best recent example of our deep denial of the reality of child sex abuse,” attorney Marci Hamilton said. “He was convicted by a jury of his peers based on the testimony of numerous victims. Never underestimate the ability of a pedophile to charm and deceive the adults around him or her.”
“Dott(ie) Sandusky, like her husband, remains remarkably unremorseful towards Jerry Sandusky’s victims,” attorney Tom Kline said. “One significant and noticeable difference is her dramatic shift from her cold and detached demeanor as a witness for her husband at his criminal trial to an emotional and distraught spouse, which appears to my eye to be an attempt to convey a sympathetic image for herself and husband — a child molester convicted by overwhelming evidence.”
A jury found evidence that Jerry Sandusky abused 10 boys, most of whom he met through his children’s charity, The Second Mile. Many of them were abused on Penn State’s campus, where Sandusky had access after he retired.
Sandusky’s wife testified at his trial that she never heard or saw anything strange or sexual going on in the basement of their home, where many of the victims say her husband molested them.
In a letter to the judge who was about to sentence her husband in October 2012, Dottie Sandusky said she had lost faith in the police and the legal system: “To think that they can lie and get by with the lies. The press has been unbelievable. People who have not met us are writing untruths.”
The-CNN-Wire
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