A Seattle attorney who released the names of nearly 1,900 men who were expelled from the Boy Scouts of America after complaints of child sex abuse says he did so in the interest of public safety and education.

“This is an issue of broad public safety concern,” attorney Tim Kosnoff of Kosnoff Fasy said Tuesday.

“People are asking, is Boy Scouts an organization that can be trusted? I say not the way it’s currently dealing, or failing to deal with, the problem.”

On Monday, Kosnoff posted a spreadsheet on his website naming Scouting volunteers who were expelled from the national youth organization from 1971 to 1991 after they were accused of molesting boys or other inappropriate behavior.

Kosnoff, who has sued the Boy Scouts of America on behalf of more than 100 alleged sex-abuse victims over the past decade, calls the list the Boy Scouts' “perversion files.” He says he gathered the names and other identifying information over many years from a variety of sources, including court cases and those who had access to the BSA database.

"Many of these individuals have never been given an opportunity to refute these allegations in a court of law," a note on Kosnoff's website says. "Therefore, we make no assumptions about their guilt or innocence."

Media outlets, including The Oregonian and The Los Angeles Times, have previously had access to the files and published stories about them. But Kosnoff said the summary he posted on the Internet on Monday has never been directly available to the public.

He said his website had so many hits after the list was posted that it crashed early Tuesday morning. He said he's gotten calls from reporters across the country, as well as dozens of emails and phone calls from the general public.

“There’s just been a lot of ‘God bless you’ type of messages,” Kosnoff told NBC News on Tuesday.

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According to The Oregonian, Kosnoff did not release the underlying Boy Scout files that his spreadsheet was based upon because they had not been redacted of the alleged victims' names. His action comes days before some 1,200 redacted files are expected to be released by another set of attorneys in Portland, Ore., as a result of an order by the Oregon Supreme Court. Those files span 1965 to 1985, significantly overlapping with Kosnoff's, The Oregonian reported.

Don Ryan / AP file

Attorney Peter Janci sets court case displays upon boxes full of records from the Boy Scouts of America in Portland, Ore., June 14. The Oregon Supreme Court approved the release of 20,000 pages of so-called perversion files compiled by the Boy Scouts of America on suspected child molesters within the organization for more than 20 years.

Media organizations had sued for the release of those files, part of a 2010 Oregon case in which a jury decided that the Scouts were negligent for allowing a former assistant Scoutmaster to associate with the organization's youth after he admitted molesting 17 boys in 1983.

Kosnoff said he hopes the newly released information will be useful to parents.

“Why not just let the public see the evidence and decide for themselves whether they want to entrust their children to this organization?” Kosnoff said.

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In a statement Monday, Deron Smith, a spokesman for the Boy Scouts, acknowledged that the organization had at times failed to protect the children in its care.

"There have been instances where people misused their positions in Scouting to abuse children, and in certain cases, our response to these incidents and our efforts to protect youth were plainly insufficient, inappropriate or wrong," Smith said, The Los Angeles Times reported. "Today Scouting is a leader among youth serving organizations in preventing child abuse."

In September, The Times reported that Scouting officials had failed to report hundreds of alleged child molesters to police and often hid the allegations from parents and the public.

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The Boy Scouts of America could face a wave of bad publicity as decades of records of confirmed or alleged child molesters within the U.S. organization are expected to be released in coming weeks. 

On Sunday, the Los Angeles Times reported the organization failed to report allegations of sex abuse of scouts by adult leaders and volunteers to police in hundreds of cases from 1970 to 1991. In some cases, the Boy Scouts helped the accused "cover their tracks," the paper said. 

The story was based on a review of 1,600 internal Boy Scouts case files the newspaper said it obtained that detailed accusations against confirmed or alleged child molesters within the youth organization. 

About 1,200 "ineligible volunteer" files dating from 1965 to 1985 are set to be publicly released under a June order by the Oregon Supreme Court, including some already reviewed by the newspaper. 

Those files played a key role in a 2010 civil trial in which an Oregon jury found the Boy Scouts liable in a 1980s pedophile case and ordered the organization to pay nearly $20 million in damages. 

The files will be released within three to four weeks, said Paul Mones, one of the attorneys representing the plaintiff in the Oregon case. 

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In the wake of revelations about systemic child sex abuse within the Catholic Church and the recent Penn State sex abuse scandal, the files threaten to damage the reputation of one of America's most trusted institutions. 

Mones said the allegations revealed in the Oregon case are not necessarily comparable to the Catholic Church's sex abuse scandal. 
"In the Catholic Church there were overt cover-ups, and I don't think you see a lot of that here with the Boy Scouts," Mones told Reuters on Sunday. 

The Boy Scouts of America said in a statement on Sunday that while it regrets past incidents where scouts were sexually abused, its current policies require even suspicions of abuse to be reported directly to law enforcement. 

"The BSA (has) continuously enhanced its multi-tiered policies and procedures, which now include background checks, comprehensive training programs and safety policies," the statement said. 

The organization said it has maintained an internal "ineligible volunteer" file since at least 1919 to prevent suspected or confirmed child sex abusers from joining or re-entering its ranks. 

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Boy Scouts of America officials and attorneys have said the files represent only a fraction of the adults who participate as scout leaders each year. 

The Boy Scouts have annually counted between 3.5 and 5 million scouts and more than 1 million adult leaders and volunteers among its members since the 1960s, a spokesman for the organization said. 

The organization is facing more than 50 pending child sexual abuse cases in 18 states, according to Kelly Clark, another plaintiff attorney in the Oregon case. 

Mones said he did not expect many new lawsuits to result from the upcoming release of the Scouts' files, predicting that statutes of limitation on sex abuse charges in most U.S. states would prevent victims from successful civil or criminal prosecution of alleged molesters. 

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Updated at 6:44 p.m. ET: STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - The famed statue of Joe Paterno was taken down from outside the Penn State football stadium Sunday, eliminating a key piece of the iconography surrounding the once-sainted football coach accused of burying child sex abuse allegations against a retired assistant.

Workers lifted the statue off its base and used a forklift to move it into Beaver Stadium as the 100 to 150 students watching chanted, "We are Penn State."

Construction vehicles and police arrived shortly after dawn Sunday, barricading the street and sidewalks near the statue, erecting a chain-link fence then concealing the statue with a blue tarp.

Read the latest on the story on NBCSports: Paterno statue removed

The statue, nearly 7 feet tall and weighing more than 900 pounds, was built in 2001 in honor of Paterno's record-setting 324th Division 1 coaching victory and his "contributions to the university." 

CFT: 'Take (Paterno) statue down or we will,' banner says

The university said it would take down the larger-than-life monument in the face of an investigative report by former FBI Director Louis Freeh that found the late coach, along with three top Penn State administrators, concealed the abuse claims against Jerry Sandusky more than a decade ago in order to shield the university and its football program from negative publicity.

Pat Little / Reuters; Patrick Smith / Getty Images

The site outside Beaver Stadium before and after the statue's removal.

Penn State President Rodney Erickson explained  the decision to remove the statue in a statement that read in part:

With the release of Judge Freeh's Report of the Special Investigative Counsel, we as a community have had to confront a failure of leadership at many levels. The statue of Joe Paterno outside Beaver Stadium has become a lightning rod of controversy and national debate, including the role of big time sports in university life. The Freeh Report has given us a great deal to reflect upon and to consider, including Coach Paterno's legacy.

Throughout Penn State, the two most visible memorials to Coach Paterno are the statue at Beaver Stadium and the Paterno Library. The future of these two landmarks has been the topic of heated debate and many messages have been received in various University offices, including my own. We have heard from numerous segments of the Penn State community and others, many of whom have differing opinions. These are particularly important decisions when considering things that memorialize such a revered figure.

I now believe that, contrary to its original intention, Coach Paterno's statue has become a source of division and an obstacle to healing in our University and beyond. For that reason, I have decided that it is in the best interest of our university and public safety to remove the statue and store it in a secure location. I believe that, were it to remain, the statue will be a recurring wound to the multitude of individuals across the nation and beyond who have been the victims of child abuse.

The family of Paterno said the statue's removal "does not serve the victims" of the abuse scandal. A family statement issued Sunday said the only way to help the victims was  to "uncover the full truth." The family has previously said they do not agree with the conclusions of the Freeh report and planed to commission their own investigation.

Presideent Barack Obama feels the removal of the statue is "the right decision," White House spokesman Jay Carney said.

Meanwhile, the National Collegiate Athletic Association said it would announce "corrective and punitive measures" for Penn State on Monday in the aftermath of the child sex abuse scandal. NCAA President Mark Emmert hasn't ruled out the possibility of shutting down the Penn State football program for a year or more in the wake of the scandal, adding that he had "never seen anything as egregious."

Target for critics
The bronze sculpture outside Beaver Stadium has been a rallying point for students and alumni outraged over Paterno's firing four days after Sandusky's Nov. 5 arrest -- and grief-stricken over the Hall of Fame coach's Jan. 22 death at age 85.

But it turned into a target for critics after the Freeh report's stunning allegation of a cover-up by Paterno, ousted President Graham Spanier and two Penn State officials, Athletic Director Tim Curley and Vice President Gary Schultz. Their failure to report Sandusky to child-welfare authorities in 2001 allowed him to continue molesting boys, the report found.

Erickson admitted that the school had made mistakes in its handling of the affair, and said the university had become more aware of the issues of child abuse as a result of the scandal that engulfed the school. 

CFT: Penn State to respond to NCAA, statue issues

Paterno's family, along with attorneys for Spanier, Curley and Schultz, vehemently deny any suggestion they protected a pedophile. Curley and Schultz await trial on charges of failing to report child abuse and lying to a grand jury but maintain their innocence. Spanier hasn't been charged. Sandusky was convicted last month of 45 counts of sexual abuse of 10 boys.

Some newspaper columnists and former Florida State coach Bobby Bowden have said the statue should be taken down, while a small plane pulled a banner over State College reading, "Take the statue down or we will."

But Paterno still has plenty of fans, and Penn State's decision to remove the monument won't sit well with them. One student even vowed to "chain myself to that statue" if there was an attempt to remove it.

Three men claim abuse by Sandusky in '70s or '80s

University officials had called the issue a sensitive one in light of Paterno's enormous contributions to the school over a 61-year coaching career. The Paterno family is well-known in the community for philanthropic efforts, including the millions of dollars they've donated to the university to help build a library and fund endowments and scholarships.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Nabil K. Mark, Abby Drey / AP file

Pilato had put a halo over Paterno's image after the coach's death in January, but said he felt he had to remove it after a report that Paterno and other university officials buried allegations of child sex-abuse against ex-assistant Jerry Sandusky.

A mural of the late former football coach Joe Paterno at a Connecticut middle school will be painted over following the release of a report last week that put blame on Penn State officials in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal. 

Oxford Board of Education Interim Superintendent Dr. John Reed made the decision to remove the painting from the Great Oak Middle School before classes resume, the Connecticut Post reported. 

The report didn't indicate what painting will replace the Paterno mural. 

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The board first discussed removing the painting last year following allegations Paterno and university leaders failed to report the allegations against Sandusky.

"We decided to wait until all the facts were out and the report was complete before we made a decision," Board of Education Chairwoman Paula Guillet told the station.

The Post reported the painting is part of a "Wall of Heroes" throughout the school that also features Albert Einstein, John F. Kennedy and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. 

The decision follows a 267-page independent report conducted by former FBI Director Louis Freeh on behalf of the university that found officials did little to nothing when confronted with allegations that assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky had been sexually abusing young boys. 

Report: Penn State president, Paterno concealed facts about Sandusky sex abuse

The report also found Paterno and university leaders concealed Sandusky's activities for over a decade and showed a lack of empathy for his victims.

Officials hid the allegations against Sandusky to protect the school's reputation, according to the report. 

Most of Sandusky's victims were middle-schoolers when the abuse occurred. 

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In State College, Pa., another painting of the late football coach was altered after the release of the Freeh report.

Artist Michael Pilato had created a large mural of Penn State leaders years ago. He added a halo over Paterno’s image after he died Jan. 22. But on Saturday, Pilato removed the halo over Paterno's head.

Sandusky was convicted on 45 counts for the sexual abuse of 10 boys over a 15-year period. He is in jail awaiting sentencing. 

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Gary Cameron / Reuters file

Former FBI Director Louis Freeh was hired in November to determine whether Penn State University officials knew about child sex abuse allegations against former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky.

The results of an internal investigation of Pennsylvania State University’s response to child sexual abuse allegations against former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky will be made public on Thursday.

An announcement Tuesday indicated a report on the investigation led by former FBI chief Louis Freeh would be posted online Thursday at 9 a.m. ET. It said Freeh would hold a news conference an hour later to discuss its findings and recommendations.

“We look forward to seeing the report on Thursday and reviewing Judge Freeh's recommendations,” said Penn State spokesman David La Torre. “The university will provide a response in Scranton on Thursday at a time and location to be announced.”

Sandusky, 68, was found guilty of 45 counts of child sexual abuse last month and is currently in prison awaiting sentencing. He faces a maximum sentence of more than 400 years in prison.

Freeh was hired by the university in November to review of the university's dealings with Sandusky and its response to a 2001 report that he sexually abused of a boy in a Penn State shower room, an incident witnessed by football assistant Michael McQueary.

Former Penn State President Graham Spanier has come under particular scrutiny in recent weeks amid news reports suggesting that he was made aware of suspicious activity involving Sandusky in 2001 and that no report of the incident was made to authorities.

Citing emails obtained by Freeh’s investigators, CNN reported last week that Spanier and two other university officials — Gary Schultz, the former senior vice president of finance and business, and Tim Curley, the athletic director on administrative leave — agreed to take a "humane" approach in dealing with  Sandusky following his alleged sexual encounter with a boy.

Instead of reporting the incident to police, according to the report, administrators instead planned to ask Sandusky to seek counseling and said they would tell officials at the Second Mile, the charity he founded and where he met many of the children he would later abuse, about their concerns.

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Attorneys for Spanier fired back earlier Tuesday, saying their client was never informed about the shower room incident involving Sandusky.

"At no time in the more than 16 years of his presidency at Penn State was Dr. Spanier told of an incident involving Jerry Sandusky that described child abuse, sexual misconduct or criminality of any kind, and he reiterated that during his interview with Louis Freeh and his colleagues,'' Spanier's attorneys, Peter Vaira and Elizabeth Ainslie, said in a written statement.

In addition, Freeh’s report is expected to include information about the actions of former head football coach Joe Paterno in the wake of McQueary’s allegations. Paterno, a legend in college football, died of lung cancer in January at 85.

In a statement Tuesday, Paterno's family also pushed back against the leak of emails to CNN, including one in which Curley stated, "After giving it more thought, and talking it over with Joe yesterday - I am uncomfortable with what we agreed were the next steps."

"The media spin that this is proof of some sort of cover up is completely false," the statment said. "When the facts come out, it will be clear that Joe Paterno never gave Tim Curley any instructions to protect Sandusky or limit any investigation of his actions.

"Joe Paterno did not cover up for Jerry Sandusky.  Joe Paterno did not know that Jerry Sandusky was a pedophile.  Joe Paterno did not act in any way to prevent a proper investigation of Jerry Sandusky.  To claim otherwise is a distortion of the truth.

The Sandusky scandal led to the ouster of Spanier and Paterno and charges against Curley, who is on leave from the university, and Schultz, who has since retired.  The latter two are accused of perjury for their grand jury testimony and failing to properly report suspected child abuse.

Spanier hasn't been charged.

Chip Bell, Tom Winter and Julmary Zambrano of NBC News and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Reaction poured out in Bellefonte, Pa., and across the nation Friday night after former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky was convicted on 45 of 48 counts of child sexual abuse.

Defense attorney Joe Amendola said he wasn't surprised by the verdict and planned an appeal. State Attorney General Linda Kelly praised investigators, prosecutors and the victims who came forward, calling them "brave men." And an advocate for victims of sexual violence called it a "landmark day."  

Below is a selection of reaction to the verdict and the case.

Defense attorney Joe Amendola, speaking outside the courthouse, on Sandusky’s reaction:
“He was disappointed by the verdict but obviously he will have to live with it."

State Attorney General Linda Kelly, speaking outside the courthouse:
“A serious child predator ... has been held accountable for his crimes."

Penn State University (read the full statement here):
“The legal process has spoken and we have tremendous respect for the men who came forward to tell their stories publicly. No verdict can undo the pain and suffering caused by Mr. Sandusky, but we do hope this judgment helps the victims and their families along their path to healing. … 

“Now that the jury has spoken, the University wants to continue that dialogue and do its part to help victims continue their path forward. To that end, the University plans to invite victims of Mr. Sandusky’s abuse to participate in a program to facilitate the resolution of claims against the University arising out of Mr. Sandusky's conduct.”

The family of the late Joe Paterno, former Penn State football coach, for whom Sandusky once worked (read the full statement here):
"Although we understand the task of healing is just beginning, today's verdict is an important milestone. The community owes a measure of gratitude to the jurors for their diligent service. Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with the victims and their families. "

Jerry Sandusky convicted of child sex abuse

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett, in a statement:
“First, I want to thank the jury for their willingness to serve on such a difficult case. I also want to commend the multiple victims in this case who had the courage to come forward and testify in court, confronting Sandusky, and proving beyond a reasonable doubt that he is guilty of these reprehensible crimes.”

Scott Berkowitz, president of the nonprofit Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (read the full statement here):
“Today is a landmark day for survivors of sexual violence across the nation. This verdict shows the country that when allegations of such abuse are brought to light, they will be taken seriously and that a just outcome is possible.  

Matt Sandusky: From staunch defender to damning accuser

Grace Gordon, 49, a Bellefonte resident at the courthouse, welcomed the verdict but lamented the damage the trial had done to the community:
"It's hard, it really is, to see a small town torn apart like this."

The mother of the accuser known as Victim 6, according to the AP:
"Nobody wins. We've all lost." 

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Handout / Reuters

Jerry Sandusky is seen in a booking photo from the Centre County Correctional Facility in Bellefonte, Pa., on June 22, 2012.

Updated at 11:37 p.m. ET: BELLEFONTE, Pa. — Jerry Sandusky was convicted of 45 counts of child sexual abuse Friday night and faces spending the rest of his life in state prison. His attorney said he would appeal the verdict.

Sandusky's attorney, Joseph Amendola, asked Judge John Cleland to allow Sandusky to be released on house arrest, but Cleland summarily rejected the request, saying: "Bail is revoked. Mr. Sandusky is remanded to the custody of the sheriff."

Sandusky was immediately led out of the courthouse in handcuffs as a large crowd of onlookers cheered. Sentencing was set for late September.

Sandusky, 68, the former longtime defensive coordinator for the Penn State University football team, had denied all 48 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.

Several of the counts are so-called mandated felonies, meaning Cleland has no discretion in sentencing. NBC News reported that he faces a minimum of 60 years in prison.

NBC News

Jerry Sandusky is led from the Centre County Courthouse in handcuffs Friday night.

Cleland, who is a senior judge in McKean County, was brought to Centre County to oversee the trial after local judges recused themselves.

Reaction to the Sandusky verdict

Amendola, who was interrupted by hecklers outside the courthouse several times, said he had expected the outcome and respected the verdict of the jurors, who didn’t speak to reporters afterward.

Amendola said he believed Sandusky had legitimate grounds for appeal, saying his client had "an uphill battle" because of the extensive pretrial publicity.

"We said we were attempting to climb Mount Everest from the bottom of the mountain. Obviously, we didn't make it," he said.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Linda Kelly, whose office prosecuted Sandusky, said, "A serious child predator ... has been held accountable for his crimes."

Kelly thanked the victims, who she said "came forward to bravely testify in this trial and to finally put a stop to the crimes that were committed."

"We hope that our search for justice will help them and perhaps others looking on nearby and afar," she said.

Grace Gordon, 49, of Bellefonte, also welcomed the verdict but lamented the damage the trial had done to Bellefonte and Centre County.

"It's hard. It really is, to see a small town torn apart like this," said Gordon, who was outside the courthouse with her 23-year-old son and his girlfriend.

Gordon said her father, who worked with Sandusky at Penn State, "would have just been devastated to know about this."

"You'd never, ever have dreamed that he'd be that kind of person," Gordon said. "What he did to those kids is just horrendous."

The university that Sandusky served for decades said in a statement late Friday that "we have tremendous respect for the men who came forward to tell their stories publicly. No verdict can undo the pain and suffering caused by Mr. Sandusky, but we do hope this judgment helps the victims and their families along their path to healing."

The university said it would seek to "fairly ... compensate" the victims and invited them to participate in a program to "facilitate the resolution of claims against the University arising out of Mr. Sandusky's conduct."

It said it intended to get in contact with lawyers for the victims "in the near future."

Sandusky was acquitted on three counts: an indecent assault charge involving "Victim 6", a man who testified that Sandusky had given him a bear hug in the shower but at one point he just "blacked out"; an indecent assault charge involving "Victim 5", who said Sandusky fondled him in the shower; and an involuntary deviate sexual intercourse charge regarding "Victim 2", who former assistant coach Mike McQueary said he saw being attacked in a campus shower.

A trial that riveted the nation
The trial, which opened June 11, culminated months of intense attention that led to the firing of head coach Joe Paterno, who won more games than any other major college football coach in history, many of them with Sandusky at his side.

Paterno died exactly five months ago, a few weeks after the Penn State Board of Trustees dismissed him for not having done enough to stop Sandusky's abuse.

Jurors heard often-graphic testimony from eight of the 10 victims whose accounts were included in two grand jury reports. They told how Sandusky would first win their trust by giving them gifts and taking them on trips with the football team before progressing to hugging, kissing, increasingly sexual touching and, in some cases, oral and anal sex.

In a rare occurrence in an abuse trial, prosecutors also presented the testimony of a corroborating eyewitness — Sandusky's former Penn State coaching colleague McQueary.

McQueary said the boy had his hands against the wall and that Sandusky was standing up against him from behind. He said he heard a "skin-on-skin smacking sound" and that he had "no doubt" that Sandusky was engaging in anal sex with the boy.

Because they were sequestered, without access to computers, phones or any other way to hear news coverage, the jury of seven women and five men wouldn't have heard newer, potentially damaging information from two other accusers that emerged after they began deliberations.

Sandusky's adopted son Matt said he had been prepared to testify that he, too, was a victim of abuse by his father, according to a statement issued Thursday by attorneys who said they are representing the younger Sandusky.

(NBC News and msnbc.com generally do not identify victims of sexual assaults, but Matt Sandusky chose to identify himself in a public statement released through his attorneys.)

Full coverage of the Jerry Sandusky trial
Ghosts of Sandusky's dreams haunt home where charity was born
Legal analysis by Wes Oliver
Matt Sandusky: From defender to possibly most damning accuser

Amendola said Friday night that Jerry Sandusky abandoned plans to testify in his own defense because of the prospect of damaging rebuttal testimony by his son.

Nor would they have heard the account of Travis Weaver, 30, of Ohio, who attended Second Mile camps as a youth. Weaver told NBC News in an interview that aired Thursday night that Sandusky performed oral sex on him in the upstairs bedroom of the Sanduskys' home.

Weaver testified to one of the two grand juries but wasn't mentioned in the grand jury reports or called as a witness during the trial.

The end of the trial doesn't mean the case is over.

Two former top Penn State officials, former Athletic Director Timothy Curley and former vice president Gary Schultz, face perjury charges in connection with their grand jury testimony in December, in which prosecutors alleged that concealed what they knew about Sandusky's conduct.

Law enforcement sources have told NBC News that former Penn State President Graham Spanier, who was fired in November, was under investigation for possible similar charges.

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ANALYSIS

The law is pretty clear on a lawyer's ethical duty when he makes statements regarding his clients. The lawyer may neither divulge confidences nor make statements adverse to the client's interests.

Wes Oliver is a professor at Widener University who teaches criminal law and procedure. This fall he will join the faculty of the Duquesne University School of Law as a professor and director of the school's criminal justice program.

The rule is clear enough, but it is violated all the time in innocuous ways. Lawyers go home to their wives and describe the horrifying day they had. They gather with other lawyers in corridors of courthouse or in local watering holes and tell stories about their cases. Arguably, lawyers could be seeking advice from their professional colleagues, thus including them in the attorney-client privilege, but usually they're just telling stories.

In short, lawyers do describe to their friends facts surrounding their cases, and those discussions often evaluate the strength of their cases. Ideally, and most often, they omit the names of their clients, but their listeners are frequently able to identify them. One very famous lawyer routinely jokes about his former client's guilt. Alan Dershowitz said to his criminal law class at Harvard: "If O.J. does it again. ... By that, I mean gets another speeding ticket."

Because few lawyers absolutely observe the prohibition on making statements against their clients' interest, it's often unclear precisely where the practically accepted line is. Part of the reason there's a gap between the categorical prohibition on lawyers' making statements against their clients' interest and the realities of lawyers' lives is enforcement. The odds of a communication between an attorney and his wife ever impairing his client's interest are remote. The odds that a client will ever learn of his lawyer's barroom discussion are slim. So for a lot of lawyers, the rule against making a statement against his client's interest has a practical exception — if the odds are low enough that his statement could harm his client's interest, he or she will often talk.

Full coverage of the Jerry Sandusky trial

Ghosts of Sandusky's dreams haunt home where charity was born

Legal analysis by Wes Oliver

It's not appropriate, and I don't teach my students that this is acceptable, but for a lot of lawyers it is the reality. And it would be difficult if not impossible to police the actual rule that forbids any negative statement.

Friday, however, Joe Amendola told a crowd of reporters in the Centre County Courthouse awaiting the verdict that he would be shocked if his client was acquitted of all the counts.

This after months of denying Sandusky's guilt. This after an impassioned and excellent closing argument in which he explained how all the alleged victims had fallen prey to investigators' coaching and then sought to cash in.

And, perhaps most significantly, after the judge issued a gag order expressing forbidding anyone in the case from commenting on Sandusky's guilt or innocence.

This wasn't a comment to fellow lawyers who are unlikely to have any reason to communicate the information to others. This wasn't a private communication to his wife. His statements were made in a mini-press conference in the courtroom where his client had stood trial and where the jury could come and announce its verdict at any time. His comments were made to reporters who have the right — arguably the obligation — to report his words to a national audience that has been captivated by this case.

This wasn't a comment that could never harm his client, in other words. There could be a hung jury, necessitating another trial. And there will surely be civil lawsuits. Amendola's comments, which will be heard throughout Centre County and around the country, could easily prejudice his clients' future interests.

Finally, and perhaps most significantly, this isn't a comment for which there is no ready enforcement mechanism. It is unlikely that Sandusky will file a complaint with the ethics board. But Judge John Cleland, who maintained very strict control over this trial, issued a specific order forbidding comments on guilt or innocence.

Certainly, he must have anticipated the prosecution's making disparaging comments about Sandusky, but his order didn't allow an exception for Sandusky's lawyer to suggest his own client's guilt. Cleland may well regard this as a breach of the decorum he has worked so hard to maintain. And unlike an ethics board, he has the ability to act swiftly and the power to hold Amendola in contempt.

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Updated at 7:34 p.m. ET: BELLEFONTE, Pa. — Jerry Sandusky's attorney said Friday that he expects his client to be convicted on some of the 48 child sexual abuse counts against him.

"I would die of a heart attack — shocked — if he was acquitted on all of the charges," Joseph Amendola, the head of Sandusky's defense team, told reporters in Centre County Court.

"It is just statistically unlikely," he said.

Jurors were into their 19th hour of deliberations in the trial of Sandusky, 68, the former defensive coordinator for Penn State University's storied football team and founder of the Second Mile charity for troubled children. He denies all 48 counts in two grand jury reports alleging that he abused 10 boys over 15 years.

Amendola spoke to reporters for a few minutes inside the courthouse before a court official cut him off. Judge John Cleland has issued a gag order prohibiting participants from making public statements "regarding the Defendant's guilt or innocence" (.pdf).

Before he was hustled away, Amendola acknowledged that "it's a daunting, daunting case," but he said Sandusky has "always been optimistic." 

There was still no indication when the jurors might reach a verdict. They resumed working after dinner, just as they had Thursday night.

Earlier Friday, the jury asked Cleland for clarification on hearsay and circumstantial evidence, an indication that they were wrestling with secondhand testimony about an incident in which Sandusky was allegedly seen in a Penn State University shower with a young boy.

The question involved the testimony of Ronald Petrosky, a janitor at Penn State, who said that he saw "two pairs of legs" in the shower in November 2005. He said he discussed the incident with a colleague, Jim Calhoun, who told him that he had seen Sandusky performing oral sex on the boy, who is identified in a grand jury report as "Victim 8."

Calhoun is hospitalized with dementia and didn't testify. Cleland allowed Petrosky's secondhand testimony under an exception to rules barring hearsay evidence.

Cleland instructed the jurors that "the statement of Mr. Calhoun as related to you by Mr. Petrosky is not sufficient standing alone to sustain a conviction."

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"You must be satisfied that there is other evidence that supports that a crime had been committed besides Mr. Calhoun's hearsay statement," he stressed.

Thursday night, jurors told Cleland that they wanted to rehear the testimony of former Penn State assistant coach Michael McQueary, who testified that he overheard and saw Sandusky apparently having sex with a young boy in a football locker room shower, and Jonathan Dranov, a family friend who testified that McQueary told him about incident. Both men's testimony was re-enacted Friday morning.

McQueary testified last week that he saw a young boy — identified in the first grand jury report as "Victim 2" — in a Penn State shower with his hands against the wall and Sandusky standing up against him from behind. He said he heard a "skin-on-skin smacking sound" and that he had "no doubt" that Sandusky was engaging in anal sex with the boy.

Testifying for the defense this week, Dranov said McQueary described hearing sounds he considered sexual in nature but didn't give a graphic description of what he saw.

"I kept saying, 'What did you see?'" Dranov testified. "Each time, he would come back to the sounds. It just seemed to make him more upset, so I backed off that."

The lead defense attorney, Joseph Amendola, argued in his closing statements Thursday that McQueary "assumed" sex was occurring without having actually seen any.

And he contended that Dranov must not have believed that the incident was as serious as he later said because he didn't report it to police. As a physician, Dranov is required by law to report any indication of child abuse.

The jury of seven women and five men is being sequestered during deliberations without access to computers, phones or any other way to hear news coverage of the trial. That means they wouldn't have heard that Sandusky's adopted son Matt said that he had been prepared to testify that he, too, was a victim of abuse by his father, according to a statement issued by attorneys who said they are representing the younger Sandusky.

(NBC News and msnbc.com generally do not identify victims of sexual assaults, but Matt Sandusky chose to identify himself in a public statement released through his attorneys.)

Sources told NBC News that Jerry Sandusky abandoned plans to testify in his own defense because of the prospect of damaging rebuttal testimony by his son.

Matt Sandusky: From stalwart defender to possibly his father's most damning accuser

Nor would they have heard the account of Travis Weaver, 30, of Ohio, who attended Second Mile camps as a youth. Weaver told NBC News in an interview that aired Thursday night that Sandusky performed oral sex on him in the upstairs bedroom of the Sanduskys' home.

Weaver testified to one of the two grand juries but wasn't mentioned in the grand jury reports or called as a witness during the trial.

Several of the counts are so-called mandated felonies, meaning Cleland would have no discretion in sentencing. Most carry sentences of 10 to 20 years in prison, meaning that even if he is convicted on only a handful of those counts, Sandusky could spend the rest of his life in prison.

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ANALYSIS

BELLEFONTE, Pa. — If you hadn't seen the evidence and were to be plopped in the jury box of the Sandusky trial for only the closing arguments, you would have to return a verdict for the defense.

Wes Oliver is a professor at Widener University who teaches criminal law and procedure. This fall he will join the faculty of the Duquesne University School of Law as a professor and director of the school's criminal justice program.

In Pennsylvania, the defense goes first. Even though the defense managed to score only modest points during the course of the trial, you couldn't tell it from the closing argument. Joe Amendola told a story about how one of the accusers prompted a perfect storm of investigators coaching alleged victims who were motivated by civil suits.

The first alleged victim, Amendola told the jury, reported to his teacher that Sandusky fondled him outside his clothes. This young man, however, admitted that he wanted to get out of going with Sandusky to spend time with his friends.

When the matter was reported to Children and Youth Services, investigators told the alleged victim that they thought more had happened than the young man was willing to report. Amendola told the jury that once investigators got a more incriminating story from this alleged victim, they began looking for other young men. Investigators then told the other young men that there were other victims out there who had reported an escalating pattern of touching culminating in oral sex, his argument continued.

It didn't hurt Amendola's argument that state troopers denied during the trial that they coached the alleged victims, only to have this revealed to be a falsehood in documents and recordings turned over to the defense during discovery.

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Amendola maintained the theme he presented from the beginning:  Those who cooperated with the police and who testified in this proceeding were coached and can now see a financial payoff.

The prosecution should have had an easy response. There were eight alleged victims. Could so many people fall under the spell of police coaching? There were two independent witnesses, Mike McQueary and the janitor whose colleague claimed to have seen Sandusky performing oral sex on a young boy. Finally, there were Sandusky's own words in the Bob Costas interview and in love letters he apparently wrote to one of the victims, copies of which he kept in his Penn State office.

But the prosecution didn't start with that story in its closing. Joe McGettigan spent the first 35 minutes of his hourlong closing addressing the defense's closing statement. He was well into his argument before he even began to talk about the heart of the case.

McGettigan spent two or three minutes explaining how leading questions are permitted on cross-examination. He explained that some of his witnesses may not have performed so well because they were nervous or tired because they had to testify at the end of the day.  He did all of this before he even began summarize the very powerful evidence that had been presented in the case.

When he finally got around to talking about the facts of the case he had very effectively presented, the bulk of his argument was over, and he spoke in a very summary fashion about the pattern of the predatory pedophile he believed Sandusky to be. He observed that later alleged victims described more serious conduct than others but didn't describe the testimony that made them so credible. He didn't observe that all but one alleged victim described Sandusky's earliest inappropriate touches as a hand on the knee or thigh in a car headed for Sandusky's house.

Perhaps most significantly, he didn't reintroduce the jury to some of the compelling evidence in the case — the letters in Sandusky's own hand to one of the victims or the bizarre contract for one victim to spend time with Sandusky.

McGettigan was on the defensive during this entire closing. He even spent time defending McQueary's performance on the stand. By all accounts, the defense didn't dent McQueary's testimony at all. Yet McGettigan explained that while the defense made McQueary out to be confused or a liar, he was an honest witness who didn't act as he should have the night he found Sandusky in the shower that night in 2001 with a young boy.

If there is any doubt in the jury's mind about McQueary's testimony at this point, it is only because McGettigan put it there in closing. 

McGettigan seemed disorganized throughout this presentation.  Shortly before he closed, he said to the jury that he thought he was done but needed to check his notes. He did so and then decided to close the argument with a dramatic moment. He walked behind Sandusky and pointed at him as he made his final points. There were a variety of opinions on the effectiveness of this tactic, but Sandusky turned, looked him in the eye and then looked at the jury.

The defense theory of the case is somewhat implausible, but Amendola presented his theory in a very coherent and believable fashion that accounted for all the evidence. In spending most of his time addressing Amendola's theory, the prosecutor may have telegraphed to the jury that the defense presented a reasonable interpretation of the facts.

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Updated at 9:24 p.m. ET: Jurors in the child sexual abuse trial of former Penn State University assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky deliberated for more than seven hours Thursday without reaching a verdict.

Deliberations were scheduled to resume at 9 a.m. ET Friday in Centre County Court in Bellefonte, Pa., where Sandusky is charged with 48 counts alleging that he abused 10 boys over 15 years. Three other counts were dropped early Thursday.

Judge John Cleland said the jurors had asked to rehear the testimony of two key prosecution witnesses: former Penn State assistant coach Michael McQueary, who testified that he overheard Sandusky having sex with a young boy in a football locker room shower, and Jonathan Dranov, a family friend who testified that McQueary told him about incident. Those arrangements were to be worked out Friday morning.

The jury began its deliberations about 1:30 p.m. ET and worked straight through the afternoon and early evening, for nearly 7½ hours, following closing arguments in which they heard two starkly different descriptions of the case against Sandusky.

The prosecution and the defense clashed over defense attorney Joseph Amendola's suggestion that the entire case was a conspiracy among police, prosecutors and the alleged victims and their lawyers, in hopes of a big payday in future civil trials.

"The system" prejudged Sandusky and "set out to convict him" even though the case against him makes no sense, Amendola said.

But Deputy Pennsylvania Attorney General Joseph McGettigan, the lead prosecutor, argued that it defied common sense to believe the police and court systems would have conspired to bring down a figure as beloved in the community as Sandusky, the former longtime defensive coordinator for Penn State's nationally famous football team and founder of the Second Mile charity for troubled children.

"What would we gain?" he asked.

Sandusky, 68, was charged in two grand jury indictments that accused him of having used his connection to one of the nation's premier college football programs to "groom" the 10 boys for sexual relationships.

Eight of the 10 alleged victims testified during the trial. Another whom the jury never heard from was Sandusky's adopted son Matt, whose lawyers said Thursday afternoon — after deliberations had begun — that he, too, had been abused by Sandusky.

Sources told NBC News that Matt Sandusky's potential rebuttal testimony was why Sandusky chose not to testify in his own defense. (NBC News and msnbc.com generally do not identify victims of sexual assaults, but Sandusky chose to identify himself in a public statement released through his attorneys.)

Sources: Adopted son as possible witness helped keep Sandusky silent

Legal analysis: Sandusky's attorney hits home run in closing argument

"No one wins in this case. This is awful no matter what happens," Amendola said during the closing defense argument. "If Jerry Sandusky did this — if he did this — he should rot in jail. Bless his heart, that's my feeling.

"But what if he didn't do this? His life is destroyed."

Amendola repeated the phrases "it doesn't make sense" and "does that make sense?" like mantras throughout his 75-minute closing statement, highlighting what he said were inconsistencies and logical impossibilities in the evidence against Sandusky.

"All these alleged charges only go back to the mid-'90s, so out of the blue, after all these years, when Mr. Sandusky is in his mid-50s, Mr. Sandusky decides to become a pedophile? Does that make sense to anybody? Does that make sense?"

Amendola accused the eight men who testified that Sandusky had abused them as children of seeking to cash in on eventual civil trials against his client.

"We can understand these kids now want to be compensated — the lawyers want to make all these dollars — but it still doesn't mean Mr. Sandusky did this," he said.

Amendola also accused investigators of having coached the alleged victims to say what they wanted to hear because they had already decided to ignore possible evidence that Sandusky was innocent.

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"The system decided Mr. Sandusky was guilty, and the system set out to convict him," he said, focusing on the testimony of two state investigators whose testimony appeared to be contradictory.

But McGettigan contended that the holes the defense poked in the case were, in fact, proof that there was no collusion.

"Everybody would have had to have been on the same page. Not so," he said.

McGettigan said it was easy for the defense to claim a conspiracy when "you don't name them. You just say 'the system.'"

But he said "the system" is made up of real people, in this case dozens of them who all wopuld have had to be in collusion for the last 15 years: the 10 alleged victims, the 24 grand jurors, the investigators, the arresting officers, corroborating witnesses like Sandusky's former colleague Michael McQueary, social services professionals, and McGettigan and his co-prosecutors themselves.

"If you conclude there's a conspiracy, someone bring handcuffs in for me and ... anyone else involved," McGettigan said, before concluding:

"What you should do is come out and say to the defendant that he molested, abused and assaulted (the alleged victims). He knows he did it, and you know he did it.

"Give him the justice he really deserves. Find him guilty of everything.

Three more charges dismissed
Sandusky originally was charged with 52 counts, but Cleland, who had previously dismissed one of them, threw out three more Thursday morning.

Two were charges alleging involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with one of the 10 alleged victims, which Cleland said the evidence didn't support. Had the jury convicted Sandusky on those two counts, Cleland said, he would have been required to set the convictions aside.

The third count was a duplicate of another count, he ruled.

Sandusky made no comment as he arrived at court Thursday morning with his wife, Dottie, who testified Tuesday that she never heard or saw her husband engage in any inappropriate behavior with children during their 45 years of marriage.

Sandusky had been widely expected to testify Wednesday before his lawyers abruptly rested their case after a lengthy conference in the judge's chambers.

A source close to Sandusky said "there was no one factor that led to the decision," but NBC News reported Thursday that Sandusky decided not to testify after his lawyers were warned that prosecutors would call his adopted son, Matt, as a rebuttal witness if he did so. The sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, told NBC News that Matt Sandusky was prepared to deliver damaging testimony about his father.

In his final instructions, Cleland told jurors that they had great leeway in determining whether Sandusky's alleged behavior, while possibly troubling, may not have been criminal.

For example, he said, "it's not necessarily a crime for a man to take a shower with a boy. It's not necessarily a crime for a man to wash a boy's hair or lather his back or shoulders or to engage in back rubbing."

The bottom line was Sandusky's intent, "not the child's reaction," he told the jurors, who heard eight of the 10 alleged victims testify that they were traumatized by Sandusky's alleged advances.

In other words, "you must distinguish a display of innocent affection from lust," Cleland instructed.

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Updated at 5:58 p.m. ET: BELLEFONTE, Pa. — Jerry Sandusky decided not to testify in his child sex abuse trial after his lawyers were warned that prosecutors would call a surprise new witness — one of the defendant’s own adopted sons, sources told NBC News. The man's lawyers said he was prepared to testify that his father had abused him.

Matt Sandusky, one of six adopted children of Jerry and Dottie Sandusky, was observed by NBC News entering the courthouse, accompanied by Pennsylvania state troopers, on Wednesday morning as the defense was preparing to wrap up its case — and apparently still wrestling with whether Jerry Sandusky, the former Penn State defensive coordinator, would take the stand.

Matt Sandusky, 33, has been a stalwart supporter of his father, visiting him at his home after he was charged with sex abuse and showing up at the courtroom last week to sit with his mother and other family members. But after the trial began, according to the sources, Matt Sandusky contacted prosecutors and agreed to provide testimony about events that he witnessed.

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NBC News was unable to locate him this week for comment. But his attorneys, Andrew Shubin and Justine Andronici, confirmed that Matt Sandusky requested their assistance in arranging a meeting with prosecutors "to disclose for the first time in this case that he is a victim of Jerry Sandusky's abuse."

AP Photo/Centre Daily Times, Nabil K. Mark

Matt Sandusky, adopted son of Jerry Sandusky, leaves the Centre County Courthouse in Bellefonte, Pa., on Wednesday.

Shubin and Andronucci said in a statement that they would have no further comment.

"This has been an extremely painful experience for Matt and he has asked us to convey his request that the media respect his privacy," they said.

Prosecutors contacted Sandusky’s defense lawyers in the last few days to inform them that Matt Sandusky might be called as a rebuttal witness if Sandusky testified in his own defense — news that alarmed the defense team and introduced a new wild card into their intense discussions about whether he should do so, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

A source close to Jerry Sandusky told NBC News that "there was no one factor that led to the decision" not to have him testify Wednesday. Sandusky's lawyers were also known to be concerned that the defendant would be grilled on cross examination about apparently incriminating statements he made to NBC's Bob Costas in the "Rock Center with Brian Williams" show last November, including unaired portions that were played on the "Today" show for the first time this week. Defense lawyers also believed they had made some headway chipping away at the prosecution case this week, especially by playing a tape showing that police investigators may have coached Sandusky's alleged victims by telling them what other witnesses were saying about him.

The drama over whether Sandusky would take the stand continued to play out in court on Wednesday as defense lawyers were finishing their case. During a court recess in the morning, Sandusky's lawyers motioned Sandusky to enter a side room for a conference. They then joined prosecutors for a second conference behind closed doors meeting in Judge John Cleland's chambers. About 30 minutes later, Sandusky re-entered the courtroom, looking somber and chastened. At that point, Sandusky's lawyer rose and announced, "The defense rests."

Matt Sandusky first met his father at his Second Mile charity when he was 10 years old. He later went to live in the Sandusky home after he set fire to a barn in 1995. A judge approved the Sanduskys as foster parents for Matt and he was formally adopted by the couple when he was 18.

Matt Sandusky has been named during testimony in the trial. During the first day of testimony, one of the alleged victims —listed in the grand jury report as "Victim 4" — testified that Matt Sandusky seemed "nervous" when, after they played racketball with Jerry Sandusky, the three showered together and Jerry Sandusky then began throwing soap at him, "Victim 4" testified.

"At that point, Matt got up and left," he testified. "Well, not got up, but turned off the shower, went out and into another shower."

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