Gene J. Puskar / AP

Jerry Sandusky leaves court Wednesday in Bellefonte, Pa.

ANALYSIS

The defense ended with a whimper Wednesday in Jerry Sandusky's trial in Bellefonte, Pa.

At one point, it appeared as though the defense might get some traction. It called investigators to the stand who testified that they never informed victims about complaints from other victims. Recordings of the investigators' own interviews revealed that the victims had been coached.

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.

It would likely not seem unreasonable to most jurors for police to let victims know that there are others. Jurors may even have little problem with letting victims know some specifics of other complaints.

Jurors, however, should wonder why investigators tried to hide their methods of making alleged victims comfortable speaking. They should ask themselves what else the investigators told those men and didn't report. The defense scored some real points when the state's investigators denied techniques that they were revealed to have used in documents that were turned over to the defense before trial.

Other than that, the defense case was marked by missteps and largely tangential testimony.

There was a parade of witnesses who knew Sandusky as a neighbor, a colleague or a mentor. The rules of evidence place strict limits on the testimony of character witnesses. Formally, they are limited to addressing the defendant's reputation for honesty, peacefulness and law-abiding character. In introducing character witnesses, lawyers are able to describe how the witnesses know the defendant.

That process of introduction gave Sandusky's lawyers an opportunity to tell the jury that his colleagues never knew of any misconduct with children. It also gave those he mentored an opportunity to tell the jury that he hadn't molested them as children.

Character witnesses don't hurt the defense, but they can add only so much. The fact that there are people who never saw Sandusky do anything inappropriate isn't inconsistent with his guilt.

Defense abruptly rests without calling Jerry Sandusky

Full coverage of the Jerry Sandusky trial

Legal analysis by Wes Oliver

And there were missteps during the defense case that really hurt.

Dr. Jonathan Dranov — who met with one of the prosecution's star witnesses, former assistant football coach Michael McQueary, after an alleged incident in a Penn State University locker room shower — had been expected to undermine McQueary's account. But the opposite happened. Dranov bolstered McQueary's testimony, describing him as having been very upset in describing the incident.

More damning, however, was that Dranov testified that McQueary reported hearing "sexual sounds" in the shower that night. At a preliminary hearing in December in a separate but related perjury case against two for top university officials, a lawyer cross-examining McQueary got him to admit that he heard two, at most three, "slapping" sounds. The defense's cross-examination of McQueary last week didn't confine his testimony to two or three slaps, and its examination of Dranov left the jury with testimony that "sexual sounds" were heard that night.

Finally, in calling an expert who testified that Sandusky had a personality disorder that could explain away some of his behavior, the defense had to let a prosecution expert examine Sandusky.

The defense expert's testimony was worthless at best and harmful at worst — he testified that he himself may suffer from the disorder, a disorder that he was unable to differentiate from the personalities many people have seen in their friends and colleagues.

By contrast, the prosecution's expert — a very sharp, impeccably credentialed, well-spoken psychiatrist — discounted the defense expert's theory and concluded that Sandusky's personality profile was consistent with a psychosexual disorder, with a focus on adolescents.

In exchange for raising the possibility of "histrionic personality disorder," the defense got a prosecution expert who said the defendant fits the profile of a pedophile, in other words. This was not a good trade.

The defense had quite the task facing it when it started presenting its case. It doesn't seem to have raised a reasonable doubt. On the whole, it seems to have aided the prosecution.

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The Japanese tsunami debris washing ashore on West Coast beaches is so far a novelty that has locals talking and tourists visiting, but those sporadic beachings will become more frequent -- and more costly to clean up.

In addition to removing the debris, and in some cases trying to reunite it with owners in Japan, crews must also deal with the threat of invasive marine species that could threaten local ecosystems if they grab a foothold.

Oregon's Department of Parks and Recreation learned first hand about the costs when a 66-foot-long dock landed on a beach near Newport last month.

Oregon Parks and Recreation Department

A volunteer on Nun 7 burns marine organisms off a Japanese dock that came ashore near Newport, Ore.

Volunteers helped burn non-native seaweed and other organisms clinging to the dock, and the state on Tuesday accepted a bid of $84,000 to have the structure removed from the beach. Other bids ranged as high as $240,000.

"As far as who pays, there is no single budget set aside for it at this point," parks spokesman Chris Havel told msnbc.com. "We are working with the governor's office and federal legislators to try and shield coastal communities from the direct cost as much as we can, but there are no concrete answers yet."

As for the months ahead, "no one knows how much it could cost, or who will pay," Havel said. For now, the department has to "pay for it up front" with funds budgeted for other items.

At the federal level, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration awards grants for cleanup of marine debris, but that program was created before the 2011 tsunami and is meant to deal with smaller messes.

Grants have totaled up to $1 million a year recently, NOAA spokeswoman Monica Allen told msnbc.com, but the program isn't accepting new proposals until the fall. 

Even worse for Oregon, "the program does not award grants for past work done before the award," Allen said.

In Washington state, Gov. Chris Gregoire on Monday said the state has some funds set aside for tsunami debris cleanup, but it's likely not enough. "We don't have the resources at the state level to do what we're going to have to do here," she said.

A state ecology spokesman said Washington might even send Japan the bill for cleanups. "That's something that needs to be sorted through," Curt Hart said on Northwest Public Radio.

NOAA's Allen said the agency is working with communities to "reduce any possible impacts to our natural resources and coastal communities," but she stopped short of saying federal funds were available.

"This is an ongoing issue," she said, urging communities to keep an eye on NOAA's marine debris website. 

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Victims of North Carolina's forced-sterilization program will not receive any compensation under a $20.2 billion state budget deal announced Wednesday. One outspoken victim of the program says she plans to sue.

If lawmakers had approved $10 million to start the compensation plan, the state would have been the first in the country to pay forced-sterilization victims.

The state's program ran from 1929 to 1974 and involved more than 7,600 people. The state House in May approved a plan to pay $50,000 to each victim still alive as of March 1, 2010.  Officials have verified 132 victims, of whom 118 are living, but they estimate that up to 2,000 people would be eligible for compensation, which all told would cost $100 million.

Senate leader Phil Berger, R-Eden, told the Raleigh News and Observer newspaper that there was not support in his chamber for the payments, leaving the compensation effort likely dead this year.

Republicans had raised questions about the potential total cost of compensation and whether offering compensation would open the door to other people seeking damages for previous misguided state activities, The Associated Press reported. 

House Speaker Thom Tillis, R-Mecklenburg, told the News and Observer that he considered the inability to get eugenics funding “a personal failure.”

“It’s something I’ll continue to work on,” he said.

Democratic Gov. Beverly Perdue supported the compensation plan.

Shawn Rocco / AP file

Elaine Riddick hugs Rep. Larry Womble, D-Forsyth, following a House committee meeting on May 22 in Raleigh, N.C.

Elaine Riddick of Atlanta, who spoke out on NBC’s "Rock Center" last year about the eugenics program, told the AP on Wednesday that she was angry with the Senate. Riddick, born in 1954, was 14 when she was sterilized after being raped and giving birth to a son.

"I have given North Carolina a chance to justify what they had wronged," she said, adding that she plans legal action on behalf of herself and other victims, including those who have died. "I gave them up until the last moment, but now I have no other choice. These people here don't care about these victims. ... I will die before I let them get away with this."

In November, Riddick told Rock Center that doctors cut and tied off her fallopian tubes.

“I have to carry these scars with me.  I have to live with this for the rest of my life,” she said.

Earlier: Victims speak out about North Carolina sterilization program

Riddick was never told what was happening, Rock Center reported. “Got to the hospital and they put me in a room and that’s all I remember, that’s all I remember,” she said.  “When I woke up, I woke up with bandages on my stomach.”

Riddick’s records reveal that a five-person state eugenics board in Raleigh had approved a recommendation that she be sterilized. The records label Riddick as “feebleminded” and “promiscuous.” They said her schoolwork was poor and that she “does not get along well with others.”

“I was raped by a perpetrator [who was never charged] and then I was raped by the state of North Carolina.  They took something from me both times,” she said.  “The state of North Carolina, they took something so dearly from me, something that was God given.”

This article includes reporting by The Associated Press.

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Julie Fletcher / AP

Tracy Martin, father of Trayvon Martin, speaks before a rally in Sanford, Fla., in March.

SANFORD, Fla. -- Before anyone in 17-year-old Trayvon Martin's family knew he had been shot in a gated community here, and before 28-year-old George Zimmerman was charged with second-degree murder in Martin’s death more than six weeks later – before the protests in between, and before the anguish – there was a confused father worried for his son’s whereabouts.

In police recordings provided to NBC News under a freedom of information law, Trayvon’s father, Tracy Martin, speaks with Sanford police the morning after his son was shot and killed.

Click here to listen to Tracy Martin's call for help

Click here to listen to police dispatch calling Tracy Martin back

Tracy Martin is unaware of what’s happened and calls the non-emergency line at the Seminole County Sheriff's Office to ask if he can file a “missing persons report.”

“I’m from Miami. And my son’s up here with me,” Martin can be heard saying, adding,  “He don’t know anybody up here.”

Father and son are from Miami Gardens – outside the city – but the two had traveled to Sanford to visit with Tracy Martin’s girlfriend. 

“Do you know the address?” the dispatcher asks.

“What’s the address, baby?” Martin can be heard saying – presumably to his girlfriend.

Martin goes on to say he hasn’t seen his son since 8 or 8:30 the prior night. 

The call to police was placed at 8:39 a.m. Feb. 27, according to the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office. 

A second dispatcher representing the Sanford Police Department called Martin back sometime later, asking for details about his son. Does his son have a driver’s license?

“No, he don’t,” Mr. Martin says.

“Ok, does not have a DL,” the dispatcher says.  “And is he white, black, or Hispanic?”

“He’s black,” Martin says.

Mary Altaffer / AP

Trayvon Martin is seen in a poster image during a rally in New York in March.

Asked if Trayvon knows anyone in the area whose house he might have gone to, Martin says no.

“I have a nephew up here,” Martin says, “but he’s not at my nephew house. He hasn’t been over there, either.”

 “OK, alright then,” the dispatcher says. “The officers are already on the way. I just want to get a little further – in case, you know, while they’re on the way they might spot him so we can let them know.”

But police, of course, do not find Trayvon. His body, though not yet identified, had been recovered from the scene of the shooting the night before.

Watch US News videos on msnbc.com

Trayvon reportedly was watching NBA basketball on TV on the evening of Feb.26, then walked to a 7-Eleven store to pick up some Skittles and a canned drink. 

As the teenager returned from the convenience store, he and neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman crossed paths inside the gated community, and sometime later a fight ensued.

Though several witnesses told law enforcement they saw and heard portions of the fight, no witness so far has said with certainty what happened throughout.

How the fight between Trayvon and Zimmerman ended is by now well-known – and left only one of those two men alive.

Trayvon was killed when Zimmerman fired his Kel-Tec 9mm handgun at the teenager – shooting him through the heart, according to autopsy reports.

Zimmerman was charged on April 11 with second-degree murder. He has pleaded not guilty. 

Sanford police officers have said Zimmerman claimed on the night of the shooting that he acted in self-defense. Teams of investigators reached varying conclusions on Zimmerman’s claim, which delayed an arrest. A special prosecutor, Assistant State Attorney Angela Corey, was assigned on March 22.

Click here to see Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s executive order assigning Angela Corey to the case

George Zimmerman is in the Seminole County jail in solitary confinement after his bond was revoked earlier this month.

He has a bail hearing set for June 29.

Twitter: Follow Kerry Sanders at @KerryNBC  |  Follow Jamie Novogrod at @JamieNBCNews

NBC News' Tom Winter contributed to this report.

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A woman who beat her 7-year-old daughter with a belt, leaving her with lacerations and bruises on parts of her body for at least a week, was not within her parental rights to mete out punishment that went beyond a “customary spanking,” a New Jersey court has ruled.

The court’s decision reverses an earlier one in which another judge found the punishment was not extraordinary or excessive by K.T., the girl’s mother. (Only initials of family members were provided in the court documents.)

The girl told a family services caseworker that her mother struck her with a belt after learning that she had kissed a boy during kindergarten class. The Division of Youth and Family Services had been alerted to the injuries on the girl, identified only as S.T. in court documents, by a teacher on June 7, 2011. The division determined the beating occurred around May 31.

Pictures submitted to the court showed bruises on the girl’s arms, back, buttocks and thighs. She also had lacerations to her buttocks and right thigh, probably caused by the prong of a belt buckle, the Appellate Division of New Jersey’s Superior Court said in its decision issued Tuesday in favor of the family services agency.

“We hold that K.T.'s acts against her daughter are excessive corporal punishment and support a finding that S.T.'s ‘physical, mental, or emotional condition ... is in imminent danger of becoming impaired as the result of the failure of (K.T.) ... to exercise a minimum degree of care,’” Judges Mary Catherine Cuff and Alexander Waugh said in their decision.

In a recorded interview, K.T. said she struck her daughter with a belt for "a couple of minutes" because she had been sitting on a boy's lap and had been disruptive in school. K.T. said she only meant to strike her daughter’s buttocks, but the girl’s squirming around led to the other bruises. She also said she had used a belt to discipline her daughter in the past, according to the judges’ decision.

When asked if she knew what she did was wrong, she replied, "No, because that's pretty much how I was raised," the court documents said.

K.T., citing a prior New Jersey court case, said her actions fell within her constitutional right to use this type of punishment, and the record was void of “any objective evidence” that she had, in spanking her child, “recklessly created a risk of serious injury to S.T.”

The court reviewed another New Jersey case where the slapping of a disruptive older child did not constitute excessive corporal punishment. It also said the law didn’t prohibit corporate punishment, and that a parent could inflict reasonable moderate correction, but that was not the case here.

“Multiple strikes with a belt to a seven-year-old child, which left bruises and marks all over the child's body that were visible seven days after the incident, is hardly the occasional discipline of a wayward or incorrigible teenager condoned by the Court” in an earlier case, the judges said. “Neither the school nor K.T. asserts S.T. exhibited other behavioral problems or was generally a difficult child. The punishment inflicted by K.T. is hardly a ‘customary’ spanking.”

The earlier trial judge, identified as Union County Superior Court Judge James Hely by the New Jersey Law Journal, had granted physical custody to the girl’s father, M.H., and joint legal custody to both parents. It’s not clear if the custody arrangements have changed with the appellate court’s decision, and the family services division did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

K.T.'s lawyer, Justin Walker of Piekarsky & Associates, told the law journal that she "may have been angry but I don't believe (her actions) crossed into the realm of abuse."

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Former University of New Mexico President F. Chris Garcia was arrested in June 2011.

A state district judge has ruled that a website on which a former University of New Mexico president is accused of helping run an online prostitution ring is not illegal, the Albuquerque Journal reported.

F. Chris Garcia along with Fairleigh Dickinson University physics professor David C. Flory and others were arrested last June and charged with a criminal complaint of promoting prostitution.

Garcia was a professor emeritus of the university who served as interim president in 2002-2003.

He and the others are accused of overseeing a website called Southwest Companions. Investigators allege that the site had around 14,000 members, including 200 prostitutes, who were paid anywhere from $200 to $1,000 for sex acts, although payment was not made through the site.

The case was scheduled to be heard by a grand jury Monday, but the Journal reported that State District Judge Stan Whitaker said in a ruling that a website, online message board and a computer of Garcia's didn't constitute a "house of prostitution." He added that the website wasn't a place where prostitution was  practiced, encouraged or allowed, the Journal reported. 

Defense attorneys had filed a motion earlier this month to prevent prosecutors from seeking an indictment "for conduct, that as a matter of law, is not a crime," the Journal reported. 

Whitaker agreed and told prosecutors that if they wanted to proceed they had to instruct jurors about the court's ruling. 

"We feel vindicated by judge Whitaker's ruling that in essence says he (Garcia) did not and could not have committed a crime," Garcia's lawyer Robert Gorence told msnbc.com.

He declined to tell msnbc.com what the website was used for. 

Prosecutors now must decide where to go from there. 

Since the state has no laws specifically addressing the use of computers for prostitution, federal laws may apply, the Journal reported. 

"If the website itself is not a place where prostitution is practiced, encouraged or allowed, and neither is a computer, is the room where the computer is stored?" Chief Deputy District Attorney Mark Drebing told the paper. "Because the purpose of the website is to arrange sex between prostitutes and clients."

Watch the most-viewed videos on msnbc.com

Drebing told  the Journal that the state's options are to abide by Whitaker's order, come up with different charges or appeal the judge's order to the state Supreme Court.

He said that Whitaker ruled on facts that haven't been presented yet and that the defense merely offered a theory of the state's case in the motion, the newspaper reported. 

Gorence told the Journal last month that Garcia never received a penny from any activities as a result of the website and that he didn't control or direct the activities of women who advertised as escorts. 

He said Garcia's reputation has been harmed, the paper reported. 

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Jurors told a Philadelphia judge Wednesday that they are hung on all but one count in the landmark sex-abuse trial against Roman Catholic priests.

NBC10's Terry Ruggles has just told us that the judge will tell jurors to go back in and continue deliberating.

After 12 days of deliberation the jury of seven men and five women -- many with ties to Catholic schools or parishes -- returned this morning saying they were deadlocked on four of the five counts. We don't know which count jurors have been able to reach a verdict on.

See the original report at Philadelphia's NBC10.com

Monsignor William Lynn is charged with two counts of endangering the welfare of a child and one count of conspiracy. Reverend James Brennan is charged with attempted rape and endangering the welfare of a child.

Msgr. Lynn is the first Roman Catholic Church official in the United States tried over accusations of protecting predator priests.

Lynn could face about 10 to 20 years in prison if found guilty.

Rev. Brennan, is accused of molesting a teen in 1996. His lawyer called the accuser, who has a lengthy criminal record, a con man seeking a payout.

Brennan, 49, did not testify, while Lynn spent three days on the witness stand saying that he did what he could to stop molestation by clergy but that he was only doing his job when he reassigned suspected clergy.

On cross-examination, Lynn acknowledged that he had not helped the 10-year-old altar boy raped by the Rev. Edward Avery in 1999, seven years after Lynn met with another Avery accuser.

“And I'm sorry about that,” Lynn said.

Avery is in prison after admitting the crime.

After closing arguments, jurors quickly asked for a half-dozen exhibits, including a gray folder found in a locked safe at the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. The folder contains a list of 35 suspected predator-priests -- and was compiled by Lynn in 1994. At least one priest on the list was a parish pastor until this year.

Lynn, the former secretary for clergy, testified that he created the list from secret church files containing hundreds of child sex-abuse complaints. He said he hoped Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua and other superiors would address the growing crisis.

It's unclear who put the surviving copy of Lynn's list in the safe. Lynn denied doing so, or owning the safe. The gray file was found when the safe was smashed open in 2006, two years after Lynn left his archdiocese job. An in-house lawyer said he put the gray folder in his files in 2006 without realizing the list -- sought by a grand jury in 2004 -- was inside.

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A new team of outside lawyers for the archdiocese turned it over to prosecutors in early February, days after Bevilacqua died. Lynn's trial started March 26.

The jury heard from more than a dozen alleged victims, including a nun, a former priest and a series of troubled adults.

Lynn said he did more than his colleagues to help victims and advance the church's response to both accusers and the accused priests, who were often sent for evaluation or treatment before transfers to new, unsuspecting parishes. Lynn said that only Bevilacqua had the power to remove priests from ministry.

But prosecutors say Lynn could have quit or called police. Instead, he stayed in the job for 12 years -- and acknowledged he never once contacted authorities.

As deliberations continued the questions of jurors became fewer until they finally came back to the judge Wednesday saying a unanimous decision on all counts couldn't be reached.

This article includes reporting by The Associated Press.

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An Escondido, Calif., woman was critically injured when a car went off the side of a road and landed upside down in a swimming pool along a stretch of road known to residents as "rollercoaster road."

Ashley Garcia, 23, and her 33-year-old boyfriend were traveling along Calavo Drive just east of Nordahl Road just before midnight Monday.

NBC7 San Diego spoke to one of Garcia's relatives at the hospital. He wouldn't comment on Gracia's condition or the crash, but asked for prayers during this difficult time.

See the original report at NBCSanDiego.com

After the residents of the home heard the crash, they rushed out to see the car in the pool. Neighbor Jarit Welles, 22, dove into the pool and rescued the woman. The man, who was behind the wheel, managed to crawl out of the wreckage on his own, officials said.

When emergency crews arrived, they began CPR and transported her to Palomar Hospital.

The driver has been identified as Robert Aaron Anderson of San Diego.

Officials say Anderson was driving at a high rate of speed when his 2006 Kia Rio veered to the right, crashed through a fence and into a backyard pool.

“We’ve been hearing for years from high school kids and neighbors that they call this 'the rollercoaster road,'” said resident Bill Miller.

“They can actually make the front wheels off the ground and keep them in the air for three or four feet and when they come back down they get that ferris wheel feeling in the pit of their stomachs and they’ll go giggling down the road if they make it successfully,” he said.

Miller told NBCSanDiego he now uses a wheelchair because he was involved in an accident four years ago in which a car traveling down the same roadway at 80 to 90 mph hit him broadside and nearly severed his foot.

California Highway Patrol officers took Anderson to their Oceanside station for questioning.

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Updated at 2:26 p.m ET: Lawyers for Jerry Sandusky abruptly rested their case Wednesday morning without calling the former Penn State University assistant football coach to the stand.

It was an unexpected end to the defense phase of Sandusky's trial on 51 counts alleging that he abused 10 boys over 15 years.

Without explanation, defense attorneys requested a recess during testimony from one of their own witnesses. Then — after an unusually long break during ,which both legal teams joined the judge in his chambers amid speculation over whether Sandusky would take the risky step of testifying — defense attorneys said they were done.

The prosecution offered no rebuttal witnesses. Court was adjourned until Thursday morning, when closing arguments were scheduled.

The defense decision came after the witness, David Hilton, 21, reacted with surprise when he was asked whether he knew that his uncle had called the defense team Tuesday night. Sandusky attorney Karl Rominger then asked for a recess.

Hilton was testifying that he spent a lot of time with Sandusky as a youth. He said he spent many nights at the Sanduskys' home but that nothing inappropriate ever happened.

It wasn't the only surprise on the seventh day of Sandusky's trial in Bellefonte, Pa. Judge John Cleland announced as court opened that one of the jurors had taken ill and was being replaced by an alternate.

Then, he announced that lawyers for both sides had agreed to stipulate that the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who broke the Sandusky story had helped the mother of one of Sandusky's alleged victims find an investigator. The defense contends that investigators and journalists in Pennsylvania started with the premise that Sandusky was guilty of abusing young boys and ignored evidence of his innocence.

The reporter, Sara Ganim of the Harrisburg Patriot-News, who broke the news that a grand jury was investigating Sandusky, was called under subpoena by the defense. The newspaper sought to quash the subpoena, citing Ganim's right to protect her sources, but Cleland turned down the motion.

Full coverage of the Jerry Sandusky trial

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Sandusky 'Rock Center' interview provides rare look at former coach's view

Legal analysis by Wes Oliver

After a conference at the bench at which lawyers for the newspaper sought to keep her off the stand, Cleland told jurors that Ganim had been called to answer questions about whether, "prior to charges being filed in the case, she contacted the mother of an alleged victim and provided her with contact information for an investigator in this case."

Cleland said the legal teams had stipulated that "the answer would be yes."

Ganim remained in the courtroom, where she could be heard vigorously disagreeing with the stipulation agreement between the prosecution and defense teams.

Ganim later told her newspaper: "For the record, I would not have answered yes to that question. I would have declined to comment under the Pennsylvania Shield Law.''

The revelation that Ganim — who won widespread acclaim and journalism's highest honor for her pursuit of the Sandusky allegations — may have interjected herself into the story as a participant goes to the heart of one of the defense's primary arguments: that Sandusky was being steamrollered by institutional forces oblivious to evidence that he might not be guilty.

"There are a lot of forces at work pushing this forward," Sandusky attorney Joseph Amendola told Cleland during the subpoena arguments Tuesday.

The defense has already demonstrated, through testimony and audio of a police interview with one of the alleged victims, that investigators at times told potential witnesses that there were other victims in the case, which the defense contends tainted their testimony.

Jurors also heard from Jonathan Dranov, a friend of the family of Michael McQueary, the former Penn State assistant coach who testified last week that he saw Sandusky in a football locker room shower with a young boy.

McQueary testified said he didn't explicitly see any intercourse, but he said he had "no doubt" that it was occurring because of the relative positions of Sandusky and the boy and the sounds they were making.

Dranov said he was present at a conversation at which McQueary recounted the alleged incident, concurring that McQueary didn't describe having directly seen any sex act.

"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."

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Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel explained publicly for the first time Tuesday why he is throwing his support behind a controversial proposal that would give police officers the option to ticket, rather than arrest, people for having small amounts of marijuana.

"It’s not decriminalization. It's dealing with it in a different way and a different penalty," Emanuel said Tuesday at an unrelated press conference.

The mayor last week issued a statement announcing his backing for the proposal introduced last fall by Alderman Danny Solis.

He said he changed his stance on the matter after his administration analyzed the amount of police time used to chase and prosecute suspected users, especially given that many of the cases are thrown out in court.

"I got comfortable with this because I think this is the right thing to do for a number of reasons. It does not undermine what we're trying to do on fighting crime," Emanuel said, according to the Chicago Tribune.

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People currently found to possess small amounts of marijuana face a misdemeanor charge punishable by up to six months in jail and a $1,500 fine. The proposal stipulates police officers would have the option to write tickets with fines ranging from $100 to $500 for people carrying 15 grams or less of marijuana, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Emanual also announced he had amended the proposal so that a portion of any revenue collected would be earmarked for an anti-drug campaign aimed at kids.

"I want to make sure our children get a clear and unambiguous message as it relates to drug use: it is wrong and it is dangerous," the mayor said.

A majority of Chicago aldermen signed on to the proposed ordinance, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle has long endorsed a change to the area's pot policies. Police Supt. Garry McCarthy's support of the idea has been tepid.

Some aldermen worry about how police officers will apply the discretion they would be granted, the Chicago Tribune reported. Alderman Ed Burke said Monday he needs more information before deciding whether he'll support the proposal.

The mayor said the move would free up police resources and save the city about $1 million.

The plan will be considered Thursday by the Committee on Public Safety, the Chicago Tribune reported, before it goes before the full council on June 27.

NBCChicago.com contributed to this report.

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