Jerry Sandusky reportedly withdraws recantation claim, aiming for new trial in higher court

Former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky agreed over Zoom from a state prison in southwestern Pennsylvania to withdraw a recantation claim in Centre County Court on Tuesday, according to multiple reports .

The evidentiary hearing was part of the 82-year-old Sandusky's latest attempt to secure a new trial in a higher court, more than a decade after he was convicted of 45 counts of child sexual abuse in 2012 and sentenced to 30-60 years in prison, a scandal that was deleterious to Penn State football and ultimately resulted in the firing of legendary head coach Joe Paterno .

The hearing occurred even after Sandusky's attorneys filed a withdrawal motion last week . Sandusky and his legal team changed course and decided to no longer proceed with testimony from one of Sandusky's 10 accusers, who sought to recant his allegations that Sandusky abused him in the late '90s .

That accuser, who was 24 at the time of his first interview with the Pennsylvania State Police in November 2011 and was previously known as "Victim 10" in court documents, alleged that he was "misled repeatedly" by prosecutors, according to a signed affidavit from June 30, 2025.

Victim 10 wrote that he made statements during Sandusky's 2012 criminal trial that were "induced under extreme psychological and institutional pressure." He said his testimony evolved as the result of "emotional strain, repeated exposure to leading questions, intense investigative pressure and psychological manipulation." And he recalled being coached during pretrial meetings, in which he purported that he was "repeatedly asked to revisit and reframe" his story until his responses "aligned with what appeared to be desired by the prosecution team."

In the affidavit, Victim 10 specifically called out lead prosecutor Joe McGettigan, who died in December.

The lone recantation claim was supposed to be the center of Tuesday's hearing — that is, until Sandusky's lawyers pivoted.

On Tuesday, Sandusky reportedly affirmed that strategy change. He testified that he wasn't pressured, threatened or offered assurances for dropping the claim, according to the Centre Daily Times .

It was Sandusky's first public appearance since 2019, according to The Athletic , which noted in its report that Sandusky mostly provided one-word answers in an occasionally shaky voice to Judge Maureen Skerda and that Sandusky had visibly less hair than seven years ago. Plus, Sandusky reportedly struggled to hear questions through the video stream.

"He's got heart issues. He's delayed a heart surgery. He's 82 years of age, you saw him if you were in the courtroom," said Jerry Russo, Sandusky's attorney, outside the courthouse after the hearing," per The Athletic.

Sandusky's legal team was dismayed that the court didn't hear additional claims offered in an appeal last year and has been chagrined by the court's previous dismissals of Sandusky's pursuit of a new trial, per ESPN .

Russo told assembled media, according to the Centre Daily Times , that this claim was withdrawn because recantation claims are seen as "inherently unreliable."

"If that's the only issue that remains for us to litigate, there's no purpose to deserve litigating here in state court," Russo said, via the Centre Daily Times.