Investigator recommended charges against Sandusky in 1998

During the third day of Jerry Sandusky's trial, jurors listened to testimony from three more alleged victims, one of whom said the former coach threatened his family. NBC's Michael Isikoff reports and former prosecutors Star Jones and Wendy Murphy analyze the testimony.

By Kim Kaplan, NBC News, and M. Alex Johnson, msnbc.com

Updated at 12:15 p.m. ET: Former Penn State University assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky should have faced criminal charges 14 years ago, a former campus police officer who investigated Sandusky in 1998 said Thursday at Sandusky's child sexual abuse trial.

Kim Kaplan of NBC News reported from Bellefonte, Pa. M. Alex Johnson is a reporter for msnbc.com. Follow M. Alex Johnson on Twitter and Facebook.

Ronald Schreffler, a Penn State police investigator from 1972 to 2006, testified on the fourth day of Sandusky's trial in Bellefonte, Pa., that he and social services officials believed Sandusky had behaved inappropriately in a shower with an 11-year-old boy, but that the local prosecutor disagreed with their recommendation to bring criminal charges.

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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The boy ? who is now 25 and is identified in the indictment as "Victim 6" ? also testified Thursday and said Sandusky bear hugged him in the shower after a workout at the university but didn't grope him sexually during the 1998 incident. Schreffler began his investigation after the boy told his mother what had happened and she called the police.

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

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Schreffler, who now works for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, testified that he and a State College, Pa., police officer hid in the boy's home to listen in when Sandusky twice visited to pick up the boy. Schreffler said that the second time, when the boy's mother confronted Sandusky about the shower incident, Sandusky "made the statement: 'I wish I could ask for forgiveness. I know I won't get it from you. I wish I was dead.'"

Schreffler and youth services officials recommended that Centre County District Attorney Ray Gricar bring criminal charges, but 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.

Full coverage of the Jerry Sandusky trial

Legal analysis by Wes Oliver

Schreffler testified after alleged victim No. 6, who is now a graduate student at a Bible college. The man said he had tried to block out the 1998 incident and had maintained pleasant relations with Sandusky until last year. As recently as last summer, he testified, he had lunch with Sandusky and his wife, Dottie.

Only recently, through counseling and self-reflection after allegations emerged last year that Sandusky had molested other young boys, did the man begin re-examining what happened in 1998, he said.

Now, he said, "I feel violated. I've gone through a lot of emotional roller coasters since then."

Six other young men have testified that Sandusky engaged in more disturbing sexual behvior with them.

One of them, a 25-year-old sergeant in the Army National Guard, told jurors Thursday that he met Sandusky in 1998 and stayed overnight at his house more than 50 times. Many times, he said, Sandusky "would start rubbing my stomach, blowing on my stomach and pelvis. He would also, at times ? he would touch my penis."

The man said he wanted Sandusky to stop but didn't say so, or tell anyone else what was happening, because the relationship "made me feel like I was part of something, like a family, and getting things that I didn't have before, and I didn't want to give that up."

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 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.

Under cross-examination, alleged victim No. 3 acknowledged that he told police early last year that nothing inappropriate ever happened and that he?couldn't believe charges were being filed against Sandusky.

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.

The prosecution is expected to wrap up later Thursday after calling one more alleged victim.

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