One day after being found guilty of 45 of 48 child sex abuse counts, former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky has been placed on suicide watch, according to FOXSports.com.
Sandusky is reportedly not considered to be suicidal, but the 68-year-old has been placed in protective custody as a precaution, according to his attorney, Karl Rominger:
The judge in this case and the warden in this case decided to take a measure not meant to suggest in any way that he is suicidal, but simply to put the precautions in place first and then evaluate later, Rominger said.
FOXSports.com is reporting that Sandusky will be sentenced in three months and faces a maximum of 442 years in prison. He will be evaluated at Pennsylvania’s Camp Hill diagnostic facility before being sent to a sex offender unit in state prison, according to the report.
It is unclear for how long Sandusky will be specially monitored, but it appears to be a temporary arrangement.
Sandusky’s week-long trial ended on Friday night following a day-and-a-half of jury deliberations, during which the jury requested to rehear testimony from former Penn State assistant coach Mike McQueary, who testified that he saw Sandusky sexually abusing a boy in a Penn State locker-room shower.
Sandusky was initially indicted by a grand jury on Nov. 4, and it led to one of the biggest scandals in the history of collegiate sports. Longtime Penn State head football coach Joe Paterno was fired for not properly reporting what McQueary had told him, and several other Penn State administrators were ousted as well.
Attorney Joe Amendola has said that he plans to appeal Sandusky’s conviction, according to FOXSports.com, so the saga of the disgraced coach may be far from over.
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