By David DeKok
BELLEFONTE, Pa. (Reuters) - A 29-year-old man told a Pennsylvania court on Friday that Jerry Sandusky molested him as a boy in 2001, even though he admitted he had denied that the former Penn State football coach abused him during the investigation of the scandal.
The surprise testimony by Allan Myers came during a hearing into Sandusky's bid for a retrial on charges that he had molested 10 boys under his care over the years. His 2012 conviction resulted in his imprisonment for up to 30 years.
In 2012, prosecutors decided against calling Myers as a witness in the trial, deeming him to be unreliable. Sandusky's lawyer called Myers to testify in Friday's hearing even though the lawyer was not sure what Myers would say once he got to the stand.
Myers on Friday confirmed that he was the long-unidentified boy who was seen with the ex-coach in a Penn State shower room. But he never specifically said that Sandusky had molested him during that shower, as a witness at the ex-coach's trial testified.
Sandusky's bid for a new trial has revived a scandal that severely damaged the reputation of Pennsylvania State University and the vaunted football program run by the legendary head coach Joe Paterno, who has since died.
Myers offered little reason for changing his story beyond what he said was his confusion when he learned that investigators believed he was the boy seen in the shower. He said he needed to "sort things out" at the time.
But Myers said he had received a call from Sandusky during the investigation in which he said the coach urged him to tell authorities that they were just "horsing around."
Under questioning from Sandusky's lawyer, Alexander Lindsay, Myers acknowledged he received a confidential financial settlement from Penn State after changing his story.
“Were you abused by Mr. Sandusky?” asked Deputy Attorney General Jennifer Peterson. Myers said that he was.
Lindsay then put Sandusky on the stand to deny that.
Lindsay hopes to win a new trial for Sandusky by showing that his original lawyer, Joseph Amendola, was incompetent, in part because he did not put Myers on the stand to rebut witnesses who testified the coach had abused them.
Myers had refused to talk to Lindsay before the hearing.
Myers said he met Sandusky after he was referred to the coach’s former program for at-risk youths, The Second Mile. He later attended one of Sandusky’s sports camps and lived briefly at his home after graduation from high school in 2005.
(Reporting By Frank McGurty; Editing by Mary Milliken)
