HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) - A Carlisle attorney who has joined Jerry Sandusky's defense team says the former Penn State assistant football coach may have showered with young boys because the children lacked basic hygiene skills.
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"Teaching a person to shower at the age of 12 or 14 sounds strange to some people," [said attorney Karl Rominger,] "but people who work with troubled youth will tell you there are a lot of juvenile delinquents and people who are dependent who have to be taught basic life skills like how to put soap on their body."
On Thursday, Rominger issued a statement clarifying his comments earlier in the week about the reasons why an adult might shower with an adolescent.
"When answering why a person might be in a shower with a youth, I proposed one hypothetical, such as an adult leading by example and encouraging a youth with bad or poor hygiene to shower regularly. Some commentators have argued that I am saying that Mr. Sandusky showered with youths and touched them inappropriately for the purpose of teaching them how to shower. That is not what I said. First, there's no evidence of inappropriate touching in a shower, except for discredited statements from the grand jury presentment. Further, Jerry has maintained his innocen[ce] and denies any sexual touching or inappropriate touching in the shower. Therefore, I would like to clarify that I am not suggesting that this is what happened in this case, but was answering questions about possible motivations an individual might have for an adult to shower with a juvenile."
[Rominger] said [Tuesday] he does not disagree with Sandusky's decision to talk to the media. He does, however, believe he could have come across a little better.
