Sandusky Withdraws Claim on Accuser’s Recantation in Move to Seek Federal Appeal

Jerry Sandusky on Tuesday formally withdrew his claim for a Centre County court hearing on one of his accusers’ recantation of sexual abuse allegations as the former Penn State football assistant coach and Second Mile charity founder seeks to move his appeal to federal court.

Appearing remotely via video from Laurel Highlands state prison, Sandusky answered questions from specially-presiding Senior Judge Maureen Skerda and prosecutors affirming that he voluntarily wished to withdraw the claim and understood that it cannot be further litigated in state and federal court.

Skerda previously rejected most of the claims in Sandusky’s latest post-conviction relief petition filed a year ago, but in April ordered a hearing to hear testimony on an affidavit signed in June 2025 by a man identified at Sandusky’s 2012 trial as Victim 10 and in court documents as R.R., who said that he was heavily coached and pressured to make accusations that were “not willfully false, but induced under extreme psychological and institutional pressure.”

R.R., his estranged wife, Sandusky investigator Frank Parlato and former Chief Deputy Attorney General Frank Fina, one of the original prosecutors in the case, were expected to be called to testify.

But on Thursday, Sandusky’s attorneys filed a motion to withdraw the claim and cancel the hearing, which Skerda ordered to proceed only for Sandusky’s colloquy and to address any discovery issues.

Satisfied that Sandusky understood the implications of withdrawing, Skerda granted the motion at the conclusion of a brief hearing in Courtroom 1 of the Centre County Courthouse in Bellefonte. Clad in a brown jumpsuit and seated at a table as he appeared on a television at the front of the courtroom, Sandusky provided mostly yes and no answers, saying he made the decision on advice of his counsel and was not pressured or enticed to d o.

Skerda also denied a request by Senior Deputy Attorney General Cari Mahler to present rebuttal evidence to the issue of R.R.’s recantation, though the offer of proof will still put the details of the evidence into the record. Mahler said the prosecution wished to have the evidence on record in the event that Sandusky attempts to litigate the claim in the future.

Sandusky attorney Jerry Russo argued that since Skerda dismissed the claim, it no longer existed and was moot. He also said the defense was not provided with discovery for the rebuttal evidence.

“This was yet another attempt by a convicted child predator to avoid accountability and escape punishment for years of abuse he perpetrated under the veil of a child-empowerment program,” Attorney General Sunday said in a statement after the hearing. “I commend our litigation team for challenging this alleged recantation by one victim, and putting on record the voluminous evidence that debunks this highly-suspect claim by defense counsel.”

The post-conviction relief petition, Sandusky’s third, now will be appealed to state Superior Court. Once that is completed, Sandusky will seek relief in federal court, where an appeal was previously filed and stayed pending the exhaustion of the state court appeals.

In an audio recording provided to ESPN last week and posted on X by commentator John Zeigler, who for years has investigated and reported on the case, Sandusky said he has given up hope that he could get a far hearing in county or state courts.

Speaking outside the courthouse following the hearing, Russo said he believes many of the claims preserved in the current and previous petitions are “strong,” including the failure of the prosecution to disclose statements of witnesses who testified at trial.

“Their original statements, where they said nothing happened between them and Jerry Sandusky, that wasn’t disclosed until during the course of trial,” Russo said. “The rules require that exculpatory evidence, Brady evidence, be produced to the defense in advance of trial, so adequate cross examination can be prepared, so investigation can be conducted. None of that happened.”

He added that the strength of the appeal includes “countless other issues concerning the trial.”

Sandusky was arrested in November 2011 and convicted in June 2012 on 45 counts related to child sexual abuse.

R.R. was among the men who testified at trial. He said that Sandusky molested him in a swimming pool when he was about 11-years-old in 1997 after meeting him through Sandusky’s Second Mile charity for at-risk youth, but over time his accusations grew to include refusing to perform a sex act Sandusky requested in a car. At trial he testified about additional instances of abuse that had not been previously been disclosed, according to Sandusky’s post-conviction relief petition.

In his 2025 affidavit, however, R.R. says he was pressured by investigators and state prosecutors to make accusations about events he was unsure had occurred.

“I was approached by state investigators who told me that my role was critical to stopping a predator,” he said. “They emphasized that other alleged victims were reluctant to come forward and repeatedly encouraged me to believe that Mr. Sandusky had molested me–despite my lack of clear or certain memory of any such conduct.”

Investigators, he said, told him trauma likely fragmented his memory, that he “could safely affirm details” he couldn’t fully recall, and that he was “assured this was common and
even expected.”

Sandusky’s post-conviction attorneys have long argued, among other claims for relief, that Sandusky’s accusers were heavily coached or subjected to largely discredited repressed memory therapy. Requests for a new trial have been repeatedly denied.

Russo declined to say what other witnesses might testify at future proceedings.

“If you believe that Jerry Sandusky got a fair trial, you’re not going to hear what I have to say,” Russo said.

Sandusky, now 82, is currently serving a sentence of 30 to 60 years in state prison. Balding and wearing black-framed glasses, Sandusky was much thinner than when he last appeared publicly in court seven years ago.

Russo said Sandusky has “heart issues” and has delayed surgery.

“He’s feeble and frail,” Russo said “He’s 82 years old. He’s been in state prison for 15 years.”

He also described his client’s demeanor as “prayerful.”

In addition to about two dozen members of the press, also in attendance in the courtroom on Tuesday were Sandusky family members and supporters.

Among them was Joe Stains, a retired pastor who serves as Sandusky’s chaplain. He said he came to know Sandusky and believe he was innocent after reading Mark Pendergrast’s book “The Most Hated Man in America: Jerry Sandusky and the Rush to Judgment.”

Though Skerda emphasized he R.R. recantation claim cannot be litigated elsewhere, which Russo described as “technically accurate,” Stains said he is holding out hope that a court will still hear it.

“If courts really want to find the truth about this issue, they should want to know that recantation,” Stains said. “Maybe they can technically block that claim from being presented, but why would you not want to know the truth? Isn’t that what the courts are really about, to find out what the truth is and bring that to bear?”