Jerry Sandusky: Claims of Innocence Become Even More Worthless with New Charges

You're innocent until proven guilty in our society, and for what it's worth, longtime Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky has insisted that he is innocent of the child sex abuse charges that have been brought against him.

Out of the blue, new charges were brought against Sandusky on Wednesday. According to a report from ABC News, Sandusky was arrested and jailed on fresh charges stemming from additional accusations of abuse from two more victims. The charges include involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, unlawful contact with a minor, indecent assault, endangering the welfare of children and corruption of minors.

Sandusky's bail has been set at $250,000. Per an Associated Press report, a judge has ordered that Sandusky be jailed unless he can pay it.

In early November, a grand jury report was released that detailed Sandusky's assorted crimes against children, the highlight of which was a 2002 incident in which Sandusky raped a young boy in the Penn State football locker room showers. In all, the report identified eight different victims that were abused by Sandusky over a period of 15 years.

Sandusky was arrested and charged with 40 different criminal counts.

Now the total is up to 10 different victims. The two most recent accusers met Sandusky through his Second Mile charity.

The first, Victim 9, is now 19 years old, and he claims that Sandusky assaulted him in the basement of his home and at a State College hotel.

The other victim, now in his mid-20s, alleges that Sandusky started a "pattern of abuse" with him when he was 10 years old. Sandusky supposedly wrestled with him and performed oral sex on him, though their relationship ended when Sandusky requested oral sex from him while the two were driving somewhere together.

Per the ABC News report, the new charges will be included in a previously-scheduled preliminary hearing on Tuesday.

Sandusky was in a deep hole before Wednesday's developments. Now that two more victims have come forward and more charges have been filed against him, it suffices to say that he is in an even deeper hole.

In all likelihood, the status quo will hold. Sandusky and his camp have chosen to proclaim that he is innocent of all the charges that have been brought against him, and that's not likely to change. For all intents and purposes, Sandusky drew a line in the sand when he said in an interview with Bob Costas that he is innocent and that his accusers are lying.

It was hard enough to take Sandusky's word for it then. Now that there is a grand total of 10 victims in this case and even more charges hanging over Sandusky, it is virtually impossible to take Sandusky's word for it that he is innocent. 

To be sure, Sandusky is entitled to a trial, and his will likely last a long time. But in order for him to walk in this case, his defense team is going to have to destroy the credibility of 10 different alleged victims. That's a lot, and all of them will have to be discredited in order for Sandusky to walk away scot-free.

Even if nine of them are discredited, though, it only takes one legitimate victim to tell the general public that Sandusky clearly did something wrong. That could mean relatively little in a court of law, but it will mean a lot in the court of public opinion. And as we all know, the court of public opinion operates a little differently. Sandusky is not innocent until proven guilty. In the minds of society, he's guilty until proven innocent.

The way this case is going, innocence is not something Sandusky is going to be associated with any time soon.