Key Sandusky Witness Allegedly Changed His Story Multiple Times

It’s already unclear what exactly Penn State coaching assistant Mike McQueary saw when he walked in on former coach Jerry Sandusky and a boy in a locker room shower in 2002, and now yet another version of events has emerged. Supposedly, a family friend was present when McQueary went to his father to ask what he should do, and he’s testified that McQueary didn’t even see a boy being abused.

Dr. Jonathan Dranov was meeting with McQueary’s father when the then 28-year-old graduate assistant first shared his story. In both McQueary’s written statement for investigators and his grand jury testimony, he says he saw Sandusky sodomizing a boy with his hands against a shower wall. However, The Patriot-News reports that a source familiar with Dranov’s testimony says that McQueary told the two men a different story:

McQueary heard “sex sounds” and the shower running, and a young boy stuck his head around the corner of the shower stall, peering at McQueary as an adult arm reached around his waist and pulled him back out of view. Seconds later, Sandusky left the shower in a towel.

Dranov says he asked McQueary several times if he actually saw anything sexual, and because he only heard a strange noise, the older men told him to go to his bosses instead of the police.

Since McQueary’s testimony is what led to former Athletic Director Tim Curley and Vice President Gary Schultz being charged with lying to a grand jury and failing to report child abuse, their lawyers say that if there are inconsistencies in McQueary’s story the charges should be dropped. McQueary has testified that he told both officials that Sandusky was raping a child, but like former head coach Joe Paterno, they say they only heard vague accusations about Sandusky’s horseplay with children making people uncomfortable.

While Sandusky’s defense team will definitely harp on the problems with the testimony about what McQueary saw, considering that he’s facing more than 50 counts of child abuse from 10 alleged victims, dropping a few shouldn’t make much of a difference. In a preliminary hearing tomorrow, at least five of the boys who say Sandusky molested them are expected to testify against him.

Another Version Of Mike McQueary’s Story About Jerry Sandusky Surfaces [The Patriot-News]
Sandusky Scheduled To Face Several of His Accusers [NYT]