The teen-ager identified as Victim 1 in the Jerry Sandusky grand jury report will testify at the accused child molester’s preliminary hearing in Bellefonte, Pa., next week, his attorney told the Daily News on Thursday.

Philadelphia attorney Slade McLaughlin says his client is “holding up well” despite the fact that he will be questioned in open court about allegations that Sandusky, Penn State icon Joe Paterno’s longtime defensive coordinator, sexually abused him in 2007 and 2008.

“He’s just a regular teenager who goes to school every day, and his mom is just a regular lady who goes to her job every day,” McLaughlin said. “This has not been easy. People want to delve into all the nooks and crannies of this case.

“It’s been overwhelming.”

Sandusky spent Wednesday night behind bars after Pennsylvania Attorney General Linda Kelly’s office charged him with 12 new child sex abuse counts linked to two new victims and he was unable to immediately post the $250,000 bond. He was already facing 40 child sex-abuse charges.

Sandusky secured his release with $200,000 in real estate holdings and a $50,000 check provided by his wife, Dorothy.

He left a Pennsylvania county jail on Thursday afternoon and returned to his home in State College.

Pennsylvania authorities initiated the Penn State child sex-abuse investigation after Victim 1’s mother told administrators at his school that she suspected the football coach had molested her son. The grand jury report says Sandusky performed oral sex on Victim 1 more than 20 times in 2007 and 2008. Sandusky also had Victim 1 perform oral sex on him and touched the teen’s penis with his hands during that period.

The boy met Sandusky in 2005 or 2006, when he was 10 or 11 years old.

Sandusky, a volunteer football coach at the teen’s first high school, was respected for the work he did with his foundation for underprivileged kids, Second Mile, and for his ties to the Nittany Lions football program. McLaughlin said his client had to transfer to another school after students learned that he had accused Sandusky of sexual abuse, and after coach Joe Paterno was fired in the wake of the scandal.

“He was bullied at school and ridiculed,” McLaughlin said. “Administrators at the school told his mother that Jerry Sandusky has a heart of gold and she needed to think about what she was trying to do. It was a bad scenario.”

McLaughlin said he and co-counsel Michael Boni are considering filing civil litigation for their client but won’t take any action until the criminal prosecution is complete.

“It doesn’t make sense to do it before the criminal process is over,” McLaughlin said. “We have told our client that we will fully cooperate with the prosecution. If there is a guilty finding, it means automatic liability in the civil procedure. Our client won’t have to prove his case.”

McLaughlin said he was stunned by recent interviews Sandusky has done with NBC’s Bob Costas and The New York Times. Sandusky denied sexually abusing anybody but did acknowledge that he had showered with young people he met through Second Mile.

“He displayed all the hallmarks of someone who is a predator,” McLaughlin said. “He admitted to these activities and acted like there is nothing wrong with that. He admitted he showered with boys and horsed around with them. This is a man in his 50s showering with a 10-11 year-old boy. It’s inappropriate under any circumstance.

“There are certain norms in society and he went far afield from those norms,” McLaughlin added. “Even the things he has admitted to are inappropriate.”

BY Michael O’Keeffe
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Thursday, December 8 2011