Jerry Sandusky's Adopted Son Claims Abuse; How Would This Have Changed Trial?

WARNING: There is disturbing content matter herein. Please do not continue reading if you have a trigger for child abuse, sexual assault or incest.

Jerry Sandusky is currently awaiting the verdict in his trial for 48 counts of underage sexual assault, as closing arguments were made today and the jury is now in deliberation. All the formal allegations have been made and all of the testimony has been given; both cases have been rested. What the jury members know now is all they'll use to make their determination in the case.

One thing that did not come up in the trial, however, is an assertion made by Andrew Shubin, the attorney for Matt Sandusky, an adopted son of Jerry Sandusky who is now 33. According to Sara Ganim of the Patriot-News, Shubin says that while Matt was in foster care, he was abused by Jerry Sandusky. Here's more:

He has denied ever being abused by his adopted father until now. “This has been an extremely painful experience for Matt and he has asked us to convey his request that the media respect his privacy. There will be no further comment,” Shubin said in a statement.

Shubin also said Matt was prepared to testify truthfully at trial, if called by prosecutors.

The immediate reaction might be to wonder why prosecutors didn't call Matt to the stand, especially since he theoretically would have provided even more compelling testimony. But the reality of the situation is that although there's an even greater sense of revulsion over these latest allegations, the decision not to call Matt may have been the right one.

For one, Matt's allegations aren't among those that Jerry Sandusky is being tried for. Prosecutors may decide to bring those charges if anything other than a conviction happens with this trial, but as it stands, Matt wouldn't be testifying to any of the specific charges Sandusky was facing.

More importantly, talking about suffering this kind of abuse at all can be incredibly difficult for people, difficult on a level that people who've never victimized can't even fathom. And that's before an opposing attorney gets into cross-examination and subjects the alleged victim to questioning, where absolutely nothing is beyond the pale, and anything the attorney can do to discredit the alleged victim is fair game.

So considering not only the fact that Matt is an alleged survivor of the abuse but that, as the Patriot-News detailed back in March, he comes from a very complex and troubled background, prosecutors probably decided that if subjecting Matt to the witness stand wasn't necessary, they would do him the favor of letting him maintain some shred of privacy. Privacy is clearly what Matt wants; his attorney asked for exactly that and said there would be no further comment.

We'll know once a verdict is reached whether leaving Matt off the stand was the right call or not from a legal standpoint. From a moral standpoint, one has to assume that prosecutors were doing right by Matt in not subjecting his relationship with Sandusky to a courtroom's scrutiny.