'I filled with tears ... I felt relief,' one student said.
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Jerry Sandusky leaves the Centre County Courthouse Friday night after being found guilty in his sexual abuse trial, in Bellefonte, Pa. Sandusky was convicted of sexually assaulting 10 boys over 15 years.Janel DeGerolamo has been following every moment, reading every word of the Jerry Sandusky trial since it began last week.
“Penn State is my life, so this trial became my life,” she said.
The 20-year-old Palmer Township resident, who will be a senior at Penn State University in the fall, communicated with friends, roommates and football players for two hours before the jury returned its verdict. And it was a nervous two hours, DeGerolamo said, worrying the jury would somehow find Sandusky not guilty.
“Can you imagine the scrutiny on Penn State if he had been found not guilty?” she said. “I felt like the entire weight of our entire future, our entire Penn State future, was on the shoulders of the jurors.”
Local residents reacted late tonight to the news that Sandusky had been found guilty on 45 of 48 charges, lifting a collective weight off the Penn State community’s shoulders.
“I filled with tears,” DeGerolamo said. “I felt relief. I felt, ‘OK, I can breathe now.’”
Students from The Daily Collegian, Penn State’s student newspaper, were tweeting developments throughout the day today, DeGerolamo said. She learned a verdict was forthcoming when students tweeted that the courthouse had reopened and was starting to fill up.
DeGerolamo equated waiting for a report on the verdict to gathering around the television in University Park on Nov. 8 waiting for the news conference in which school officials announced the late Joe Paterno was fired as a result of the Sandusky fallout. She was anxious, her stomach in knots.
“This guy is guilty. Put him away and let’s move on,” DeGerolamo said.
The guilty verdict, however, doesn’t end the tumult around Penn State, she said. Sandusky’s sentencing and the civil lawsuits as a result of the criminal case remain.
DeGerolamo fears that some will continue to bash Penn State as a whole.
“We want, as the Penn State community, to reiterate to the community that just because one man did something wrong Penn State is not wrong,” she said, her voice breaking with emotion. “We will move on. We are Penn State.”
Penn State graduates found the verdict just.
“He’s going to get what he deserves,” said Peter Kurecian, a 57-year-old Penn State graduate who lives in Hellertown and is a longtime season ticket holder. “Hopefully, this will put it to bed and Penn State can get on and help the fight against child abuse.”
Also saying Sandusky would “get what he deserves,” Liz Ringer, a 2010 Penn State graduate who lives in Palmerton, Carbon County, Pa., said she had hoped Sandusky would be found guilty on all counts. She also expected the Penn State community would “bounce back from this.”
Palmer Township Manager Chris Christman, a 1996 Penn State graduate, said he was relieved.
“I’m glad that the jury did its job,” Christman said. “It’s a tough time for all Penn Staters watching this whole thing unfold from last fall until tonight. I’m glad he’s going to be spending the rest of his life in prison.”
Gene Haplea, the Clinton Township father of Penn State tight end Kevin Haplea, called the verdict a watershed moment in a journey that led from Sandusky’s indictment to administrative upheaval to coach Joe Paterno’s ouster and death to disturbing testimony over the last week.
He acknowledged further criminal charges and civil suits are possible if not likely but expected the Penn State community would most likely remember the verdict as the moment that closure came.
“It brings everything that started in November to a final resting point,” said Gene Haplea, whose 20-year-old daughter, Gretchen, Kevin’s twin sister, also attends Penn State.
After keeping an eye on a rapid trial, he said, he came home from dinner tonight and saw media reports anticipating a verdict.
“I thought, ‘Jesus,'” he said, “this could be over quicker than anybody thought.’”