Exclusive: New Sandusky child-abuse accuser steps forward
11/11/2015 12:49 pm PST
You didn't even have to be a college football fan to experience the shock when revered Pennsylvania State University assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky was convicted of sexually abusing 10 young boys.
But there's even more to the story. In a Crime Watch Daily exclusive, another accuser you never knew about comes forward to tell his story to Ana Garcia.
Jerry Sandusky is one of the most hated men in America. People call the former Penn State coach a pervert, a predator, a pedophile. But the disgusting allegations from the Sandusky case are far from over.
Anthony Spinelli, 43, claims when he was just 16 years old Sandusky molested him in the showers on the Penn State campus.
It was 1988, Spinelli was one of the nation's top high school quarterbacks. In his hometown of Leominster, Massachusetts, outside Boston, Spinelli had it all.
A good home, good grades, he was on the honor roll and was class president.
Spinelli was recruited by such prestigious universities as Michigan, Syracuse and Penn State. But his dream was to play for the Nittany Lions and legendary head coach Joe Paterno at Penn State.
The school invited Spinelli to attend a tryout at their summer football camp. The man who took him under his twisted wing was defensive coach Jerry Sandusky.
Prosecutors say Sandusky turned football camp into his own personal victim factory.
Anthony Spinelli says he was so freaked out by one of his idols abusing him, he got wasted on bourbon.
He was afraid Sandusky would tell his devout Catholic parents and they would blame him.
When he returned home after camp, Spinelli was a different person, struggling with anguish and doubt.
His coach, John Dubzinski, was worried about his star player.
But Spinelli was a broken young man. His dream of playing for Penn State vanished. He says he turned to drugs to numb his pain.
In short order Spinelli went from altar boy to armed robber. Then came the fateful night that would send him to prison for much of his adult life. He and a friend were drinking heavily and got into a fight. Spinelli pleaded guilty to manslaughter and got a sentence of 10 years in prison.
Fast-forward to 2011, Spinelli is in the prison TV room watching news reports of Sandusky's arrest.
That's when Spinelli decided he had to tell his story to prosecutors.
But it wasn't so easy. His alleged molestation occurred in 1988 and the statute of limitations had run out. Spinelli went to court to challenge the statute and a judge ruled in his favor.
Because Penn State is a public institution Jerry Sandusky was then a public employee, and in Pennsylvania that extends the statute of limitations.
The matter is now on the desk of Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane.
In a letter to Spinelli's attorney, Kane says "We reviewed all the facts of your allegations and found you to be compelling."
The iconic university isn't commenting on Spinelli's story, saying "Penn State has not and will never comment on legal issues related to Jerry Sandusky."
If the case goes to trial, Anthony Spinelli will have to come face-to-face with the man he's tried to block out of his life.
The disgraced coach is appealing his sentence of 30 to 60 years in the state prison.
But Anthony Spinelli is still locked in the prison of his mind -- memories of what he says happened in that locker room so long ago can never fade.