STATE COLLEGE, PA -
A witness to one of the alleged attacks that sparked the Penn State sexual abuse scandal now says he did in fact tell police of the incident in 2002.
Assistant coach Mike McQueary told friends in an email that he did go to police after finding fellow coach Jerry Sandusky allegedly raping a child in a Penn State locker room. But police deny having been told of the now infamous incident.
In an email obtained by the Associated Press, McQueary writes: "I did stop it, not physically...but made sure it was stopped when I left that locker room. I did have discussions with police and with the official at the university in charge of police."
The email last week from McQueary to a friend says he made sure it was stopped when he left the locker room and that no one wants to be in his shoes for those 30 to 45 seconds.
Sandusky spoke by telephone with reporter Bob Costas earlier this week and denied the accusations. But attorney Jeff Herman says Sandusky's answers were "beyond creepy."
Herman was central figure in the Catholic church sex scandal, representing dozens of victims of abuse.
"To me it's very similar to what I see in the Catholic church, where someone started the cover-up and then once they're in, they keep it going and unfortunately it leads to decades of kids being abused," he said.
From his perspective, Herman says head coach Joe Paterno appears to be an enabler in all of this and could ultimately face civil litigation.
"I don't care what a great football coach he was. We're talking about kids' lives and he essentially was the football program at Penn State. He knew Sandusky was using his football program to groom little boys to rape, and to not stop that is despicable in my opinion," said Herman.
Amid the controversy, the Nittany Lions will play this weekend against rival Ohio State, which put out a call for calm at Saturday's game.
