Jerry Sandusky, the former Penn State defensive coordinator who was disgraced by his conviction as a child molester, is expected to appear in court next month, more than a year after an accuser withdrew his allegations, as detailed in court records.
At 82, Sandusky is serving a 30 to 60-year prison sentence following his 2012 conviction on 45 counts of child sex abuse. Over the years, his numerous attempts to secure post-conviction relief have been consistently rejected.
In September 2025, he filed a new petition, initially dismissed by a Pennsylvania judge due to a procedural error. However, that ruling was overturned, leading to an evidentiary hearing, especially after a witness identified as R.R. recanted his previous testimony.
Jerry Sandusky, a former assistant football coach at Penn State University, is seen leaving the Centre County Courthouse in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, following an appeal hearing on October 29, 2015. Now 82, Sandusky has been granted an evidentiary hearing set for September after an accuser withdrew accusations against him. (REUTERS/Pat Little)
In their revised petition, Sandusky’s attorneys claimed, “Affidavits from R.R. (alleged Victim 10) and the mother of alleged Victim 9 show that the Commonwealth may have employed dubious strategies to sway witness testimonies.”
They placed R.R.’s recantation within their broader allegation that authorities influenced Sandusky’s accusers with therapy and suggestive interviewing, as well as undisclosed changes in witness accounts, according to court filings.
“[T]hroughout the pretrial process, I was told — both directly and indirectly — that trauma may have fragmented my memory, and that I could safely affirm details I did not fully recall,” R.R. is quoted as saying in an exhibit attached to Sandusky’s petition. “I was assured this was common and even expected.”
Former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky (L) walks into the Centre County Courthouse before being sentenced in his child sex abuse case on October 9, 2012, in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania. (Patrick Smith/Getty Images)
Sandusky’s lawyers allege that R.R. “was coached extensively and asked to revisit and reframe his allegations.”
R.R.’s estranged wife, identified in the filings as Jasmine Rittmeyer, provided an affidavit and could testify, according to Sandusky’s amended petition.
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Lawyers for the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office have described her as R.R.’s “soon-to-be” ex-wife.
“The opinion of R.R.’ s estranged spouse thirteen years after defendant’s trial, pondering what she thinks may or may not have really happened to R.R. when he was 10 years old, or any other Sandusky child victim for that matter, is irrelevant and inadmissible,” Deputy AGs Cari Mahler and Jaime Keating wrote.
The Commonwealth wrote in court filings that Rittmeyer’s affidavit alleges Sandusky investigator Frank Parlato contacted R.R. and “suggested that it would be beneficial for [him] to recant his testimony” before the recantation.
In this November 6, 1999 file photograph, Penn State’s Jerry Sandusky talks with the defense at the last timeout of the game in University Park, Pennsylvania. (Centre Daily Times/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
They are asking the judge not to allow Rittmeyer to testify about her opinion regarding Sandusky’s guilt or innocence or whether she believes R.R. told the truth at trial.
They also want the focus of the hearing to be on R.R.’s recantation and not the entire case against Sandusky.
Sandusky’s lawyers had raised several other claims in the original petition, including that he was denied due process and is entitled to a new trial over allegations that prosecutors influenced the testimony of a different witness and later profited from his allegations.
Sandusky has maintained his innocence after more than a decade behind bars.
He’s due in a Bellefonte courthouse on Tuesday, Sept. 8, at 9:30 a.m. for the evidentiary hearing.