Dottie Sandusky Lashes Out Against Happy Valley Documentary

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7ZT6F57aS4

Three years after Jerry Sandusky was arrested on child molestation charges that rocked Penn State to its foundations, there is one person who believes him innocent: His wife, Dottie.

She has a new op-ed up today — focused on a recent documentary, Happy Valley, that focuses on allegations from the Sandusky’s adopted son, Matt. (The trailer is above; the movie was shown at the Sundance Film Festival in May) The piece at PennLive.com comes with an unusual disclaimer from the site’s editors:

(Editor’s Note: PennLive’s community guidelines prohibit commenters from accusing Jerry Sandusky’s victims of fabricating their experiences and testimony since he has been convicted in a court of law. However, we are publishing this piece by Dottie Sandusky because of its inherent news value. The piece has been reviewed by PennLive’s lawyers for any potentially libelous content and it has been edited accordingly.)

That’s followed by Dottie Sandusky’s defense against her adopted son’s allegations against Jerry Sandusky in the documentary. Matt, of course, attracted attention when he went, during the middle of Jerry Sandusky’s trial, from sitting at her side in support of his adopted father to suddenly outing himself as another one of Jerry Sandusky’s victims. Dottie’s response:

For instance, it is never mentioned that:

Matt testified under oath to the grand jury unambiguously that he was never abused by Jerry and he didn’t believe he was capable of abusing anyone.

In the movie, Matt completely contradicts the story he later told Oprah Winfrey (which was that he suddenly remembered his abuse during the trial) by saying that he came forward to stop “lying” and being a “coward.”

The film also allows Matt’s lawyer (who also represents the so-called “Mike McQueary Victim” who never testified and who, strangely, is not even mentioned in the movie), to malign the entire State College community.

Several times lawyer Andrew Shubin claims, without evidence or logic, that it was our town’s love of football which allowed Jerry to go on abusing boys for so long before he was finally stopped.

She concludes: “The full and real story of this tragedy has yet to be properly told. Unfortunately, the movie Happy Valley doesn’t come close to fixing that. Instead, it only further exacerbates the media-created myth which has caused so much injustice for so many good people.”

Jerry Sandusky remains imprisoned for his convictions on child molestation charges.