A very busy day at the Sandusky trial with much testimony from many witnesses, all of them eclipsed by Dottie Sandusky taking the stand at the end of the day.
Posted here are some of today’s sketches in the order, more or less, in which they were produced.
NYT story here.
The Commonwealth called one more witness before resting its case against Jerry Sandusky. 
The witness, the mother of “Victim #9”, became visibly upset as she told the court how she regretted encouraging her son to spend time with Sandusky unaware of what was happening.
The defense started off by calling two former Penn State assistant coaches, who testified that showering with young boys was a commonplace.
Although neither coach, according to their testimony, engaged in the kind of horseplay and bearhugs attributed to Sandusky. 
Reuters story here.
More disturbing testimony from the last three victim witness. Here are some of my sketches: 
Patriot-News story here.
Making so much progress that the Commonwealth is expected to rest its case by Friday. Today we heard from three more victims, Mike McQueary’s father and a janitor at Penn State, as well as heard portion of Bob Costas’ interview with Jerry Sandusky.
It is so late, and I’m so beat I’ll just post the rest of the sketches : 
Reuters story here.
An eighteen year-old, known as “Victim #1”, gave emotional testimony today. 
Hearing him describe the abuse and the shame he suffered was not easy… 
……and under cross-examination he lost it momentarily. 
The next witness was from child protective services. 
Then came Mike McQueary………. 
……..who told about seeing Sandusky with a young boy in the shower at Penn State. 
WaPo story here.
Courtroom sketching is a form of visual journalism or reportage drawing that is slowly dying out. Where once upon a time news organization each had their own artist covering a story, today a “pool” artist often sketches for all. It is a demanding and stressful discipline where the drawing is often done directly and under tight deadline.
After forty-five years of news sketching in courtrooms and congress I’m calling it quits. It’s been sometimes fun, sometimes frustrating, almost always interesting. I’ve been lucky to work with some really great people. Don’t think I’ll miss it, but a little scared of not having a deadline.
While I won’t be sketching in court anymore, I may continue to post to this blog from time to time. Not sure what that might be. I’m about to start a new assignment documenting infrastructure and construction. Could be interesting.
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