CNN: Sandusky Victim Says Joe Paterno Ordered Him To Drop Accusation

CNN’s Sara Ganim reports a man who says Jerry Sandusky raped him in 1971 claims to have been ordered to drop the accusation by Joe Paterno himself.

The man, now 60, was a party to the $60 million settlement Penn State paid out to Sandusky’s victims; CNN also reports the university paid for his years in rehab resulting from his anger over the incident. The victim claims Paterno and another man called him after his foster parents reported the assault to Penn State officials:

“I tell them what happened — well, I couldn’t get it out of me that I was — I can’t even tell it to this day. It’s just degrading — that I was raped,” he said.

“I told the story up to a certain point. I told them that he grabbed me and that I got the hell out of there.”

He insisted that he “made it very clear” it was a sexual attack.

“I made it clear there were things done to me that I just can’t believe could have been done to me and I couldn’t escape. I said, ‘I’m very upset and scared and I couldn’t believe I let my guard down.’ They listened to me. And then all hell broke loose.

“They were asking me my motive, why I would say this about someone who has done so many good things.”

They accused him of making it up. “’Stop this right now! We’ll call the authorities,’” he said they told him.

Victim A says he couldn’t think. “I just wanted to get off the phone.”

CNN also reported a Pennsylvania state trooper confirmed the victim’s story as told to him after the allegations against Sandusky became public in 2011. Paterno’s death in January 2012 prevented authorities from engaging in a detailed interrogation with regard to what he knew about Sandusky’s decades-long string of assaults.

[ CNN]