Former Penn State football assistant Mike McQueary on Tuesday filed a whistleblower lawsuit seeking $4 million from the university, claiming he was made a "scapegoat" for the university's failures to rein in a coach accused of sexual assault.

McQueary is the staffer who said he witnessed assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky having sex with a boy in the locker room in 2001, and reported what he saw to head football coach Joe Paterno and other university officials. Other boys were assaulted on campus before Sandusky, 68, was found guilty in 2012 of 45 counts of child sexual abuse.

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Here is a copy of the lawsuit in a PDF file.

The lawsuit says McQueary is seeking $4 million. His base salary in 2011 was $140,400 plus bonuses and benefits, making his anticipated earnings over the next 25 years at least $4 million. McQueary says he was placed on administrative leave a week after a grand jury found that university officials made false statements about what McQueary had told them. Gary Schultz, a former senior vice president at Penn State, and Tim Curley, the former athletic coordinator, are accused of lying to a grand jury about what they knew of sex abuse allegations against Sandusky. The university has been paying the legal fees of other Penn State employees in the case, but not McQueary's.

McQueary was a graduate assistant football coach from 2000 through 2003, and then an assistant football coach until 2011. He said he saw Sandusky engaging in sex with a boy who appeared to be 10 to 12 years old in the staff locker room of the Lasch Football Building. He said he reported the incident to his supervisor, Coach Paterno, the next day, and then was invited to tell the story to Schultz and Curley. He said he relied on their statements that they would take action. Schultz supervised the university police department.

Penn State Communications Director David LaTorre said Tuesday, "We won't have a comment."

McQueary also is seeking compensation for having his automobile privileges revoked, compensation for early withdrawls from his retirement account, bowl game bonuses from the 2011 season, back pay through Sandusky's trial, and his legal expenses.

The university's internal Freeh report described what happened in 2001:

"On Friday, February 9, 2001, University graduate student Michael McQueary observed Sandusky involved in sexual activity  with a boy in the coach's shower room in the University's Leach Building. McQueary met with and reported the incident to Paterno on Saturday, February 10, 2001. Paterno did not immediately report what McQueary told him, explaining that he didn't want to interfere with anyone's weekend."

 "Upon opening the locker room door, McQueary heard 'rhythmic slapping sounds' from the shower. McQueary looked into the shower through a mirror and saw Sandusky with a 'prepubescent' 10- or 12-year-old boy. McQueary saw Sandusky 'directly behind' the boy with his arms around the boy's waist or midsection. The boy had his hands against the wall, and the two were in 'a very sexual position.' McQueary believed Sandusky was 'sexually molesting' the boy and 'having some type of intercourse with him' although he 'did not see insertion nor was there any verbiage or protest, screaming or yelling.'"

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ANALYSIS

While the prosecution didn't rest Thursday, it is very clear that the bulk of the commonwealth's evidence against Jerry Sandusky has been presented. Given the surprisingly fast pace of the prosecution's case, the judge canceled Friday's proceedings, leaving the jury with some disturbing testimony to consider over the Father's Day weekend.

This trial has been difficult to sit through at times. The acts alleged are horrific, and the testimony took an obvious emotional toll on the jury.

Despite the very strong case against Sandusky, the defense had strong moments on cross-examination. It has skillfully pointed out inconsistencies in the witnesses' testimony and has raised substantial questions about why some grown adults would continue to have friendly relationships with the man they now say abused them.

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Nevertheless, the question remains: Why would so many witnesses come forward with similar stories? As Bob Costas stated it in the TV interview the jurors heard: If these witnesses are all lying, Sandusky must be the unluckiest guy any of us has ever known.

Jurors have long weekend to consider graphic evidence against Sandusky

Their stories weren't identical. In fact, had they been, one would suspect collusion. But there was a small detail that ran through all but one of the accounts: All but one alleged victim described Sandusky's first having touched him on the knee or the thigh as they rode in Sandusky's car.

If a group of people were going to concoct a group lie, one would expect them to coordinate the big details, not the small one. They were all, except one, in unison in describing this as Sandusky's first uncomfortable touch. In the case of one alleged victim, the prosecution didn't bring out this fact on direct examination — we learned this unifying fact on cross-examination.

Full coverage of the Jerry Sandusky trial

Legal analysis by Wes Oliver

Almost any witness will be vulnerable to cross-examination that casts some doubt on his or her testimony, and Sandusky's alleged victims were no exception. But given the number of them, their consistency, the independent witnesses who saw Sandusky in the Penn State showers and the defendant's own words in the letters he wrote to one victim, the prosecution has presented a very strong case.

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Jurors now have three full days to consider graphic and at times disturbing testimony against former Penn State University assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky before his lawyers get their chance to answer next week.

Prosecutors in Bellefonte, Pa., concluded their case Thursday in Sandusky's trial on 52 counts alleging that he sexually abused 10 boys over 15 years, and the judge adjourned the trial until Monday.

Two grand jury reports accused Sandusky of having used his connection to one of the nation's premier college football programs to "groom" the boys, whom he met through his Second Mile charity for troubled children, for sexual relationships. 

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Sandusky, 68, who for many years was the presumed heir-apparent to the legendary Joe Paterno as head coach of Penn State's storied football team, has pleaded not guilty. Paterno — a revered figure in the sport — died in January, a few weeks after the university's Board of Trustees dismissed him for not having done enough to stop the alleged abuse.

Eight of the 10 men whose alleged sexual abuse formed the basis of the indictment testified this week, telling stories of sexual assaults, groping and — in one case — forcible rape that led to bleeding.

Jurors also heard from a former colleague of Sandusky, onetime Penn State assistant coach Michael McQueary, who testified that he witnessed Sandusky's having sex with a young boy 11 years ago. McQueary said he personally told Paterno about Sandusky's behavior but that nothing was done.

McQueary's testimony — which was corroborated by his father, who said he also discussed the incident with a senior university official — was just one of several accounts jurors heard that suggested that Penn State administrators and local prosecutors knew about Sandusky's alleged pedophilia for many years but took no action.

Legal analysis: Prosecution presented strong case against Jerry Sandusky

Thursday, the campus police officer who began investigating Sandusky in the late 1990s testified that he and social services officials recommended as early as 1998 that Sandusky should face criminal charges but that Centre County District Attorney Ray Gricar declined.

The decision by Gricar — who disappeared under mysterious circumstances in 2005 and has been declared dead — remains one of the central riddles of the Sandusky case.

'We know there were reports 10 years ago'
Jurors appeared visibly shaken several times this week during testimony from the eight alleged victims, who met Sandusky through Second Mile.

Although Sandusky's accusers are being identified by name in court, NBC News and msnbc.com do not identify victims of sexual assaults.

Full coverage of the Jerry Sandusky trial

Legal analysis by Wes Oliver

The witnesses — all but one now in their 20s — graphically recounted incidents that they said included oral sex, attempted sexual penetration and repeated sexual groping; the final prosecution witness told of having been forcibly raped more than once. They said they reluctantly tolerated Sandusky's advances because they were scared and because he lavished them with gifts and prized spots on the sidelines for Penn State football games.

One of the young men testified that Sandusky followed his school bus so he could intercept him on the way home to demand an explanation for why the young man was avoiding him.

Another testified that Sandusky treated him "like his girlfriend" for more than two years, showering him with gifts he was afraid he would lose if he told anyone about Sandusky's increasingly sexual behavior.

A third testified that Sandusky threatened that he would be cut off from his family if he told anyone about their sexual relations.

On cross-examination, the defense closely questioned witnesses on details of the alleged incidents and when they occurred, part of a strategy to raise questions about whether the alleged victims — some of whom have hired lawyers or have said they plan to seek civil damages — are making up their stories for financial gain.

Wendy Murphy, a lawyer in Boston and former child sex crimes prosecutor, said that will be a tough case to make.

"If there were a couple of victims and good evidence of financial motive and that they did talk to each other before making a report to law enforcement, that's a good defense tactic in a case like this," Murphy said. "The problem is we know there were reports 10 years ago, and even older than that, that were corroborated and are in writing in some instances."

Defense attorneys also agreed to prosecutors' plans to play the audio of Sandusky's interview last November on the NBC News program "Rock Center," in which Sandusky denied the charges against him and told NBC's Bob Costas that he wasn't sexually attracted to young boys.

Murphy said playing the interview was a way for Sandusky's lead attorney, Joseph Amendola, to let jurors hear Sandusky deny the charges without having to put him on the stand. 

"Amendola is not a dummy. He knows he had to get Sandusky on the record in some form that he could then use at trial denying guilt, because he knew he could never put him on the stand," Murphy said. 

But at other times, Sandusky's attorneys appeared unprepared or flustered by testimony they clearly hadn't expected.

On Tuesday, the defense missed several opportunities to undermine McQueary's testimony, said Wes Oliver, a criminal law professor at Widener University and a legal analyst for NBC News and msnbc.com. 

And on Wednesday, it mischaracterized previous testimony by McQueary's father as having come before a grand jury when it actually had been at a preliminary hearing in a separate but related criminal case. 

When the witness said he couldn't remember that testimony, defense attorney Karl Rominger floundered and kept pressing the point so long that the judge expressed annoyance and cut him off.

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Updated at 6:58 p.m. ET: The final prosecution witness in the child sexual abuse trial of former Penn State University assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky testified Thursday that Sandusky forcibly raped him on several occasions.

The testimony came on the fourth day of Sandusky's trial on 52 counts alleging that he sexually abused 10 boys over 15 years. Two grand jury reports accused him of having used his connection to one of the nation's premier college football programs to "groom" the boys, whom he met through his Second Mile charity for troubled children, for sexual relationships. Sandusky has pleaded not guilty.

The 18-year-old man, identified in the indictment as "Victim 9," testified that he cried out for help as Sandusky raped him in the basement of the Sandusky home, but no one came to his assistance. He said he believed that the basement was soundproofed and that Sandusky's wife, Dottie, couldn't hear his pleas.

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It was the most graphic and dramatic testimony so far at the trial in Bellefonte, Pa. Afterward, Judge John Cleland announced that the prosecution had concluded its case and that the defense would begin Monday after a three-day break.

Wednesday: Alleged victim testifies Sandusky threatened him unless he kept quiet

Legal analysis: Sandusky lawyer flummoxed by witness' memory lapse

The man said he stayed overnight at Sandusky's house between 50 and 100 times. He said Sandusky began forcibly raping him beginning when he was "maybe 13."

On some occasions, he said, the assaults were so forceful that he would bleed from his anus. He said he didn't seek medical attention; instead, "I just dealt with it."

"What was I going to do? I mean, he was a big guy," the man said. "He was bigger than me at the time, way bigger than me."

The man said he told no one about the abuse — even police when they began investigating — because he thought no one would believe him.

"He's an important guy — he's a football coach," he said. "Who would believe kids?"

On cross-examination, the man acknowledged that despite the "horrible" things Sandusky did to him, he continued to accept tickets to Penn State football games from the defendant as recently as last November. He said he did so "because I had a friend with me" who "had my back at the time."

The man's testimony was the most disturbing of that of all eight of the alleged victims who agreed to testify at Sandusky's trial.

Previous witnesses testified that Sandusky engaged in oral sex and groped their genitals, and another witness, former Penn State assistant coach Michael McQueary, testified that he saw Sandusky engaging in sex with a young boy in a Penn State shower. But none of the previous witnesses has described the sexual relation as having occurred under extreme force.

Defense attorney Joseph Amendola, as he has with most of the other alleged victims, closely questioned the man on precise details about what allegedly happened and when, part of a strategy to raise questions about whether the accusers — some of whom have sued the university or have said they plan to sue Sandusky — are making up their stories for financial gain.

Penn State accused of slowing investigation
Earlier Thursday, Anthony Sassano, an investigator with the state attorney general's office, testified that Penn State dragged its heels numerous times on cooperating with the investigation, requiring investigators to seek search warrants and to subpoena the names of university employees.

"Penn State, to be quite frank, was not very fast on getting us the information," he said in the latest of several accounts jurors have heard that suggested that university administrators and local prosecutors knew about Sandusky's alleged pedophilia for many years but chose not to take action.

Full coverage of the Jerry Sandusky trial

Legal analysis by Wes Oliver

Ronald Schreffler, who as a Penn State police investigator began investigating Sandusky in the late 1990s, also testified that he believed Sandusky was allowed to get away with his alleged behavior for far too many years, saying Sandusky should have faced criminal charges as long as 14 years ago.

Schreffler, who now works for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, testified that when he and youth services officials recommended that Centre County District Attorney Ray Gricar bring criminal charges, Gricar declined. The decision by Gricar — who disappeared under mysterious circumstances in 2005 and has been declared dead — remains one of the central mysteries of the Sandusky investigation.

'Jer' needs a 'best friend'
Some of the most bizarre evidence of the entire trial also emerged Thursday, including a "short story" Sandusky wrote that described his relationship with a boy who apparently attended his camps, which was found in one of the boxes at Penn State.

In the story, which was read aloud in court, Sandusky refers to himself in the third person as "Jer" and to the boy by his first name. Although Sandusky's alleged victims are being identified by name in court, NBC News and msnbc.com do not identify alleged victims of sexual assaults and have replaced the young man's name with (X).

"I'm Jerry. (X) is a young man who came into Jer's life," the story reads.

Later, telling how "Jer" was distressed that the boy had broken off the relationship, the story continues:

"'Tell me another story, Jer,' has been replaced with 'I don't care.' This cloud has destroyed soccer and hockey, choked smiles and laughter. There is fear that has reached his inside and killed his feelings. ...

"Jer might not be worthy, but he needs a 'best friend.'"

The trial, which opened Monday in Centre County Court, follows months of intense coverage of the case that led to the firing of Penn State head coach Joe Paterno, a college football legend who won more games than any other major college coach in history. Sandusky, who was at his side for many of those victories, was for many years presumed to be Paterno's heir apparent.

Paterno died in January, a few weeks after the Penn State Board of Trustees dismissed him for not having done enough to stop Sandusky's alleged abuse.

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ANALYSIS

It was an odd moment in court Wednesday when Jerry Sandusky's lawyer was shut down while cross-examining Mike McQueary's father.

Defense counsel Karl Rominger started by asking John McQueary whether he remembered his testimony during a preliminary hearing in the criminal case involving perjury charges against former Penn State Athletic Director Tim Curley and former senior vice president Gary Schultz. John McQueary didn't recall that testimony.

This isn't a terribly rare occurrence. Witnesses who have testified frequently forget appearances. Those new to litigation don't always remember the names the legal system assigns to the proceedings in which they testified.

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When John McQueary testified that he didn't recall the preliminary hearing, Karl Rominger showed him the transcript of his testimony.

Read the full transcript of the December 2011 hearing (.pdf)

This is a common tactic, and it usually works quite well. But McQueary still didn't recall the proceeding.

Lawyers on cross-examination are accustomed to such eventualities. One easy response is to restate the question, vaguely describing the earlier proceeding: "Did you recall testifying in December that ..."

Rominger, however, seemed like a deer in the headlights. He consulted his co-counsel, Joe Amendola. He then tried to ask McQueary again about the preliminary hearing, specifically referring to the proceeding McQueary said he couldn't remember.

It didn't help that Rominger might have confused McQueary by mischaracterizing the hearing when he first asked about it, calling it "this other grand jury in Dauphin County." The December hearing wasn't, in fact, a grand jury session — it was a preliminary hearing before a judge in a separate but related case.

Alleged victim testifies Sandusky threatened him unless he kept quiet

Full coverage of the Jerry Sandusky trial

Judge John Cleland was clearly frustrated with Rominger, who seemed lost as how to proceed. On Tuesday, he had demonstrated similar frustration with Rominger, whose cross-examination seemed to go nowhere.

On Wednesday, Cleland pointedly instructed Rominger that the witness didn't remember this hearing and to move on.

Judges often give counsel some latitude when witnesses are confused, but they have extraordinary discretion to limit the scope of cross-examination. They have not only to ensure that each side gets a fair shake but also to manage the case, to keep the case moving. Lawyers who appear to ask meaningful questions and appear not to waste the court's time are given more leeway when they get caught in a tough spot.

Rominger's performance Tuesday may have come back to haunt him Wednesday.

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Updated at 7 p.m ET: Jurors heard more graphic testimony Wednesday in the trial of former Penn State University assistant coach Jerry Sandusky, including testimony from an alleged victim who said Sandusky threatened that he would be cut off from his family if he told anyone about their sexual relationship.

The 25-year-old man, identified in the indictment as "Victim 10," said Sandusky performed oral sex on him "and vice versa" in the Sandusky home in 1998, when he was in the seventh grade. 

"He said if I told anyone, I would never see my family again," the man said. Sandusky then apologized and said "he loved me," the man said, adding that he remained silent about incidents until last year "because I was scared, I was ashamed (and) I was embarrassed."

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Although Sandusky's accusers are being identified by name in court, NBC News and msnbc.com do not identify victims of sexual assaults.

Sandusky, 68, the former longtime defensive coordinator at Penn State, denies all 52 counts alleging that he abused 10 boys over 15 years. Two grand jury reports accused him of having used his connection to one of the nation's premier college football programs to "groom" the boys, whom he met through his Second Mile charity for troubled children, for sexual relationships.

It was the third straight day that jurors in Bellefonte, Pa., heard disturbingly graphic descriptions of Sandusky's alleged pedophilia. Two of the alleged victims testified Wednesday, and three more alleged victims are scheduled to testify.

A 27-year-old man identified in the indictment as "Victim 7" testified that Sandusky, whom he first met in 1995 as a young boy, would grab him around the knees "and then eventually he would move his hand up my leg."

"If I was wearing shorts, his hands would go up my leg towards my groin area," he said. If he was wearing longer pants, he said, Sandusky would reach in and "touch my penis." 

Full coverage of the Jerry Sandusky trial

Legal analysis by Wes Oliver

Sandusky gave the boy tickets to Penn State football games for more than a dozen years, beginning in 1997, he said.

The man testified that he didn't tell his story until last year because "it was just something I didn't want my family or anyone to know. I just figured I'll keep it to myself and I get to to go to these games, so I'll push that part to the back of my mind."

A 23-year-old man identified in the indictment as "Victim 5" later testified that Sanduskey exposed himself to him in a Penn State sauna in summer 2001 and afterward groped him as they were taking a shower.

The man said he tried to get away from Sandusky, "but I didn't have anywhere more to go, and I just felt his penis on my back ... and I felt his arm move forward, and he touched my area — my genitalia — and then he took my hand and he placed it on his," said the man, who had to stop several times to fight back tears.

The man said he didn't tell anyone about the incident until last year because "I wanted to forget and I was embarrassed."

Defense attorneys spent much of their cross-examination questioning the three men on details of their alleged encounters with Sandusky, part of a strategy to raise questions about whether the alleged victims — some of whom have sued the university or have said they plan to sue Sandusky — are making up their stories for financial gain.

Jurors hear interview
After a conference at the bench, Judge John Cleland allowed prosecutors to play the audio of Sandusky's interview last November on the NBC News program "Rock Center."

Sandusky had little visible reaction as he heard himself deny the charges aginst him and tell NBC News' Bob Costas that he wasn't sexually attracted to young boys.

Following is the full interview:

Wendy Murphy, a lawyer in Boston and former child sex crimes prosecutor, said playing the interview was a way for the chief defense attorney, Joseph Amendola, to let jurors hear Sandusky deny the charges without having to put him on the stand. 

"Amendola is not a dummy. He knows he had to get Sandusky on the record in some form that he could then use at trial denying guilt because he knew he could never put him on the stand," Murphy told MSNBC-TV's Thomas Roberts. 

Jurors also heard from the father of another former Penn State assistant coach, Michael McQueary, who testified Tuesday that he witnessed Sandusky molesting a young boy in a football team shower in 2001. McQueary said he called his father, the chief executive of a medical group in State College, where Penn State is based, the night of the incident.

John McQueary testified that he advised his son to inform his immediate superior, head coach Joe Paterno, which both McQuearys said he did the next day.

Michael McQueary testified Tuesday that he had "no doubt" that he saw Sandusky engaging in anal sex with the boy, but his father testified that his son told him that he didn't see any "penetration."

Regardless, John McQueary said, it was "without question ... my conclusion" that his son did see Sandusky committing "a sexual act."

For the second straight day, defense attorneys appeared surprised by developments in the day's testimony.

Karl Rominger, one of Sandusky's lawyers, began questioning McQueary about testimony he gave in Dauphin County, Pa., in December.

But McQueary said he wasn't there, and when Rominger asked him to identify his testimony in the transcript, he said, "I was not in that courthouse to my knowledge."

It seemed a remarkable failure of memory by McQueary about public testimony he gave just seven months ago, perhaps because Rominger mischaracterized the hearing when he first asked about it, calling it "this other grand jury in Dauphin County."

McQueary's testimony came not before a grand jury but during a preliminary hearing in the criminal case against two former top Penn State officials, who are charged with perjury in connection with the Sandusky case.

Analysis: Sandusky lawyer flummoxed by witness' failure of memory

Read the full transcript of the December 2011 hearing (.pdf)

The final witness of the day was a Penn State physical plant worker who testified that one night he saw "one set of hairy legs and one set of skinny legs" in the showers. 

Shortly thereafter, Sandusky and a small boy emerged, and "I said, 'Good evening, Coach,'" said the man, Ronald Petrovsky.

After a long bench conference, Petrovsky was allowed to testify that he later talked to Penn State janitor who also had seen the incident and was severely shaken. 

Cleland said Petrovsky's testimony would usually be considered hearsay, but he allowed it under an exception that permits retelling of "excited utterances." The prosecution said the janitor, Jim Calhoun, was unavailable to testify because he has dementia.

The trial, which opened Monday in Centre County Court, is the result of months of intense coverage that led to the firing of Paterno, a college football legend who won more games than any other major college coach in history. Sandusky, who was at his side for many of those victories, was for many years presumed to be Paterno's heir apparent.

Paterno died in January, a few weeks after the Penn State Board of Trustees dismissed him for not having done enough to stop Sandusky's alleged abuse.

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ANALYSIS

Jerry Sandusky's lawyers failed to blow holes in the testimony Tuesday of former Penn State assistant football coach Michael McQueary, allowing prosecutors to score a big win in their child sexual abuse case.

Beginning with its opening statement, the defense has tried to demonstrate that the alleged victims have been coached to implicate Sandusky and have financial motives to make up their stories. 

McQueary powerfully undermined that theory Tuesday. If he saw Sandusky in the shower with a young boy in a compromising position — and the jury will not doubt that he did after his testimony — then it seems much less likely that the young men were motivated by greed or prosecutorial influence. 

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But the defense missed several easier opportunities to show problems with McQueary's account.

 

Ex-coach McQueary testifies 'no doubt' he saw Sandusky having sex with young boy

Full coverage of the Jerry Sandusky trial

Rather than zero in on significant discrepancies in McQueary's accounts of when the incident occurred — given in previous testimony before a grand jury and in a hearing in December — the defense started off with a weak point: that McQueary previously claimed to have seen Sandusky and the boy in the shower two times rather than the three he described Tuesday — once in a mirror, again directly and a third time after he slammed a locker door to make it known that they were being observed.

Sandusky's lawyers also failed to confront McQueary about his reluctance to intervene in the situation.

McQueary has said he did not ask Sandusky what was going on and did not call the police the night of the incident. McQueary, in fact, volunteered the fact that he did not physically intervene during his cross-examination Tuesday, but the defense seemed almost oblivious to the gift McQueary handed them amid the devastating answers he provided to their other questions. 

When Sandusky's lawyers did get around to asking McQueary about the inconsistent dates he has offered in the past, their pattern of questions allowed him to give an easy explanation. 

Rather than confront McQueary directly with his testimony at a preliminary hearing during which he expressed absolute certainty about the date, the defense simply asked about his prior testimony in general. That let McQueary remind jurors that in interviews, he has also expressed uncertainty about whether the events occurred in 2001 or 2002 and declare that he did not dispute the prosecution's timeline of events. 

Perhaps most seriously, the defense failed to establish that McQueary could not have seen the most serious crimes he believes he saw because of the relative height of Sandusky and the young man he saw in the Penn State shower.

At a hearing in December involving perjury charges against former Penn State athletic director Tim Curley and former senior vice president Gary Schultz, different lawyers skillfully pointed out that McQueary could not have seen any sex unless Sandusky had been holding the boy in the air. 

The failure of Sandusky's lawyers to address that testimony may lead the jury to conclude that Sandusky did engage in sex with the young man — even though at the end of the Curley-Schultz hearing, it seemed clear that McQueary's testimony was insufficient to prove that any sex occurred. 

Finally, the defense was unprepared for McQueary's cross-examination. Apparently expecting him to say yes, defense lawyer Karl Rominger asked McQueary whether he had played in a golf tournament run by Sandusky's foundation after having witnessed the alleged shower ecounter. But McQueary said he did not play, and Rominger was not ready with documentation to challenge him.

McQueary's account Tuesday had real problems, but it was not effectively challenged, and his testimony ended up being a slam dunk for the prosecution. 

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Updated at 6:49 p.m. ET: Michael McQueary, a former assistant football coach at Penn State University, testified Tuesday that he had "no doubt" that he saw Jerry Sandusky having sex with a young boy in the team's showers.

McQueary, 37 — a key witness in Sandusky's child sexual abuse trial but one whose testimony has been characterized as varying and hard to reconcile — was on the prosecution's witness list but hadn't been expected to testify until Wednesday at the earliest.

Sandusky, 68, the former longtime defensive coordinator at Penn State, denies all 52 counts alleging that he abused 10 boys over 15 years. Two grand jury reports accused him of having used his connection to one of the nation's premier college football programs to "groom" the boys, whom he met through his Second Mile charity for troubled children, for sexual relationships.

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McQueary — a graduate assistant coach at the time who later became a full-time staff member — testified that he had returned to the football team's facilities late on a Friday night to retrieve some tapes when he heard "showers running and smacking sounds — very much skin-on-skin smacking sounds."

Legal analysis: Sandusky defense fails to dent McQueary's damning testimony

Full coverage of the Jerry Sandusky trial

McQueary said he could see the shower area through a mirror. As he opened his locker, he said, he saw "Coach Sandusky standing behind a boy who is propped up behind the shower. The shower is running, and he is right up against" the back of the boy, who was propped up against the wall leaning on his hands.

Sandusky's arms were "wrapped around the boy's midsection in the very, very closest proximity that I thought you could be in," McQueary said.

McQueary slammed his locker shut "as loud as I could to make a loud sound," he said. "I made it in an attempt, I think, to say, 'OK, someone's here, break it up please.'"

When he went back to take a second look, "both individuals were separated," he said.

NBC: Former Penn State president could face charges in Sandusky case

Asked by Joseph McGettigan, the deputy state attorney general who is prosecuting the case, whether he believed Sandusky was engaging in anal sex with the boy, McQueary said: "I thought i saw that, yes. No doubt about that."

McQueary's account has been contested because he initially testified at a hearing last year that he believed the incident occurred in March 2002, while prosecutors say it actually occurred on Feb. 9, 2001 — more than a year earlier.

McQueary said Tuesday he may have been mistaken and that "I really do believe it was 2001," as the prosecution contends. Questioned intensely about the discrepancy under cross-examination, he said, "I have no problem saying that I'm not a perfect individual."

McQueary has also been criticized for not having done more to put a stop to Sandusky's alleged abuse. He defended himself on that count Tuesday, saying was shocked and "wasn't thinking 100 percent right."

"I'm used to pressure situations, and I can say that was more than my brain could handle at that time," he said.

McQueary said he told his father that night. The next day, he went to head coach Joe Paterno's home and "made sure Coach Joe knew it was sexual and it was wrong, and there was no doubt about that."

McQueary was blocked from telling the jury what Paterno — who died earlier this year — told him, because it would be hearsay.

Wesley Oliver, a Widener University law professor and legal analyst for NBC News and msnbc.com, said the defense tried to demonstrate in the first two days of testimony that the alleged victims have been coached to implicate Sandusky and have financial motives to make up their accounts.

But "if Mike McQueary saw Sandusky in the shower with a young boy in a compromising position — and the jury will not doubt that he did after Tuesday's testimony — then it seems much less likely that these young men are motivated by greed or prosecutorial influence," Oliver said.

Alleged victim tells of continued abuse
Sandusky's trial entered its second day Tuesday in Bellefonte, Pa., with testimony from the 18-year-old man identified in court papers as "Victim 1." The Central Mountain High School student said Sandusky began repeatedly sexually abusing him when he was in middle school..

Although Sandusky's accusers are being identified by name in court, NBC News and msnbc.com do not identify the victims of sexual assaults.

The young man testified that he stayed overnight at Sandusky's house more than 100 times in 2005 and 2006.

"At first, it was — he would kiss me on the forehead good night, and then it — then it came to him kissing me on the cheek, then rubbing my back, then pulling me on top of him and rubbing my back," the young man said, pausing a couple times to collect himself.

Eventually, the behavior progressed to "back massages, hand down the back of my shorts — the same thing, except this time he, he sat there and looked at me and said something along the lines of 'it's your turn,' and he, he made me, he made me put my mouth on his privates," the man continued, by now crying openly and wiping his face.

That started when he was "close to going onto 13," he said.

Once the young man entered high school, Sandusky — who volunteered as a football coach there — would sometimes have him pulled out class for visits in a school conference room, he said. On one occasion, he alleged, Sandusky even followed his school bus so he could intercept him on the way home to demand an explanation for why the young man was avoiding him.

The experience was so traumatic, he said, that "I acted out. I started wetting the bed. I got into fights with people and stuff I would never normally do."

Jessica Dersham, a case worker with Clinton County Children and Youth Services, testified that in a meeting with Sandusky, who was accompanied by an attorney, the coach "admitted to blowing raspberries on his stomach, laying on him to crack his back" — which the young man said was a wrestler's way to loosen the back muscles — and "rubbing his back."

She said Sandusky couldn't recall whether his hand went under the boy's pants but insisted that he never had any sexual contact or "intent."

The trial, which opened Monday in Centre County Court, is the result of months of breathless coverage that led to the firing of Paterno, a college football legend who won more games than any other major college coach in history. Sandusky, who was at his side for many of those victories, was for many years presumed to be Paterno's heir apparent.

Accuser says Sandusky treated him like 'girlfriend' in graphic encounters

Paterno died in January, a few weeks after the Penn State Board of Trustees dismissed him for not having done enough to stop Sandusky's alleged abuse.

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