Wetzel on D&C: Sandusky case one-sided

Yahoo! Sports writer Dan Wetzel joined Dennis & Callahan on Friday to discuss the ongoing trial of former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky.

After the first four days of witnesses from the prosecution, Wetzel said the alleged victims that were called to the stand were very powerful.

“The prosecution, they didn’t rest yesterday, but they essentially did and it only took four days,” Wetzel said. “They thought the trial would go three weeks, maybe a month. Now it may go seven or eight days. So that pretty much tells you what happened. … I just don’t know how you can listen to all of this stuff -- trials are crazy, but how you don’t listen to this stuff and say, ‘This is just one of the creepiest guys and we need to put him away for about 500 or so years.’ ”

Wetzel pointed out that the key to the strength of the witnesses was in the consistency of the stories from them.

“The first three witnesses were incredibly strong,” Wetzel said. “One was a 28-year-old guy who at this point in life did not fear Jerry Sandusky at all and almost waited 15 years for his chance to just destroy him back. Then they went with this 18-year-old kid who was very scared, he just graduated from high school, was weeping on the stand, just a broken kid. That was incredibly powerful. And then they come in with Mike McQueary, who was his assistant football coach who got a lot of heat for not doing more, but he was an impeccable witness because why the heck would he make this up? And the thing is the three stories right off the bat, the consistency of what all three were telling of the pattern of how Sandusky operated, it’s like how could these three possibly all make this up and sound exactly alike?

“I thought they could have rested after the first victim. I thought after the first guy. I remember sitting there going, ‘This case is over. This guy could not have been more credible.' ”

Sandusky’s defense attorney, Joe Amendola, has a lot of work to do if he is going to win the case, something Wetzel said he does not see happening.

“There are a lot of attorneys hanging around because it is a huge case in the area, and the courtroom has got everybody hanging around that loves these trials, and nobody knows [the defense's strategy],” Wetzel said. “They have hinted that they are going to put Sandusky on the stand, he basically said it in the opening statement, and he has told other people in the Sandusky sort of family that Jerry is going on. And that may be it. The Hail Mary is that this is inexplicable actions, so have him explain it.

“But here is the problem. He is not -- I don’t think he has been a very good attorney, but where he is fighting this battle is -- Sandusky essentially admits, 'Yeah, I was in the shower with this kid, and yeah, I was hugging him in the shower, and we are both naked and he is 12, and I was washing him and soaping him up and all of these things, but I didn’t cross that line.' That is a real bad thought to be arguing because for the rest of us, you don’t shower with other people’s 12-year-old sons and you don’t soap them up. At that point, what are you arguing?”

To hear the interview, go to the Dennis & Callahan audio on demand page [1].