Story highlights In letters to judge, Sanduskys portray themselves as virtuous victims 
 
 The letters all but guaranteed a maximum punishment, legal observers say 
 
 "Sentencing is a time to ask for mercy, not to attack others," one expert says 
 
 Adopted Sandusky son disappointed by his parents' smearing of his character, lawyers say 
 
 When all was said and done, Jerry and Dottie Sandusky did not ask the judge for mercy. They did not try to extol Jerry's virtues, list good deeds or express regret. Instead, they depicted the boys he sexually assaulted as ungrateful and called them liars. 
 
 They blamed the young men -- including their own adopted son, Matt, who now claims he, too, was molested -- for their downfall. 
 
 In letters to the judge who would sentence the former coach, the Sanduskys portrayed themselves as virtuous victims of a vast conspiracy. They blamed powerful, image-conscious forces at Penn State University, lying cops, ambitious prosecutors and a scandal-hungry news media. 
 
 Victims angrily confront Sandusky at sentencing 
 
 JUST WATCHED Sandusky victim: 'I do not forgive you' Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Sandusky victim: 'I do not forgive you' 03:55 
 
 JUST WATCHED Was Sandusky's sentence harsh enough? Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Was Sandusky's sentence harsh enough? 03:50 
 
 JUST WATCHED Prosecutor: Sandusky was delusional Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Prosecutor: Sandusky was delusional 01:16 
 
 The couple's letters were mentioned in court on Tuesday but not read aloud. Judge John Cleland and the Centre County courts made them public, and CNN obtained copies. 
 
 In them, Jerry Sandusky expressed little sympathy for the 10 boys he was convicted of molesting. As he wrote about their families, he tried to shift the blame, pointing out that the boys came from unstable homes. 
 
 "Nobody mentioned the impact of abandonment, neglect, abuse, insecurity and conflicting messages that the biological parents might have had in this," he wrote. He said nothing about the damaged lives and institutions his molestation case left in its wake. 
 
 Read the letters (.PDF) 
 
 Instead, both Sanduskys wrote that the justice system let them down. 
 
 Just as letters to one of the boys he was accused of molesting helped secure his conviction, the letters to the judge all but guaranteed a maximum punishment, legal observers say. 
 
 Cleland, who presided over the trial and sentenced Sandusky on Tuesday to 30 to 60 years in prison, noted that others wrote letters as well. But he indicated that he considered only the Sanduskys' letters in handing down a sentence that, for a 68-year-old man, is likely to be a life prison term. 
 
 Victim to Sandusky: 'Because of you, I trust no one' 
 
 "Sentencing is a time to ask for mercy, not to attack others," said Laurie Levenson, a former federal prosecutor who teaches legal ethics at Loyola Law School. "In my experience, judges really hate letters that try to shift the blame to others or which belittle the victims or the court." 
 
 B.J. Bernstein, an Atlanta attorney who comments on legal matters for CNN, agreed that Sandusky didn't do himself any favors. 
 
 "The old adage 'if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all' applies to sentencing statements," Bernstein said. "It is awkward when you deny you are culpable and a jury says otherwise. For appellate purposes Sandusky was never going to accept responsibility or admit doing something wrong, but lashing out at everyone so strongly was irrational." 
 
 She added that Sandusky might have thought he was still playing to his Penn State fan base, but it backfired. 
 
 "Between Jerry and Dottie's vicious protestations of innocence," Bernstein said, "all I can think is the victims -- and in particular their son Matt -- should shout back the lyrics from the Eric Clapton song, 'Before you accuse me, take a look at yourself.'" 
 
 Sandusky's son comes forward as victim 
 
 Jerry Sandusky bashed victims and laid out the conspiracy theory in a pre-recorded interview leaked to a campus radio station on the eve of his sentencing. He hinted at it again when he spoke in court on Tuesday, after being warned by his lawyers to avoid criticizing his victims or the justice system. 
 
 His performances on air and in the courtroom were widely derided by prosecutors, legal analysts and commentators as narcissistic, self-absorbed and even more hurtful to the young men he was convicted of molesting. 
 
 Jerry Sandusky's letter expanded on the rambling, 15-minute courtroom soliloquy that touched on everything from the writer Henry David Thoreau to "special inmate friends" to wet kisses from dogs. Like that speech, it was part locker room pep talk and part Sunday school inspirational, with a heaping side order of the Frank Sinatra ballad "My Way." 
 
 He wrote about life in protective custody, and how it led him to think about all the interests that were being protected as the case unfolded: "The system protected the system, the media, the prosecution, the civil attorneys and the accusers. Everybody protected themselves," he wrote. 
 
 "Penn State, with its own system, protected their public image," he continued. "Media protected their jobs and ambitions. Prosecutors protected their jobs and egos. The accusers were protected and provided access to potential financial gain, free attorneys, accolades, psychologists and attention." 
 
 McQueary files lawsuit against Penn State 
 
 He wrote that he was heartbroken. 
 
 "My trust in people, systems and fairness has diminished," he said. "In my heart I know I did not do these disgusting acts. However, I didn't tell the jury. Our son changed our plans when he switched sides." 
 
 Matt Sandusky was 18 when he was adopted by the Sanduskys after spending time with them in foster care. The relationship always has been rocky, but it collapsed near the end of Sandusky's trial in June. As the prosecution's case drew to a close, Matt told investigators that Sandusky had molested him, too. 
 
 Matt Sandusky, now 33, did not testify for either side, but Jerry Sandusky insists that his adopted son's desertion and potentially damaging testimony kept him from testifying in his own defense. 
 
 The Sanduskys spared no one. 
 
 "There were so many people involved in the orchestration of this conviction (media, investigators, prosecutors, "the system," Penn State and the accusers.) It was well done. They won!" Jerry Sandusky wrote, as if a tragic court case about molested children was an epic gridiron contest. 
 
 "When I thought about how it had transpired, I wondered what they had won," he continued. "I thought of the methods, decisions and allegations. I relived the inconsistencies and dishonest testimonies." He pondered what would happen if the tables were turned. 
 
 When the hero falls off the pedestal: The emotion of betrayal 
 
 "What would be the outcome if all the accusers and their families who were investigated?" he wrote. "I knew the answer. All their issues would surface. They would no longer be these poor, innocent people as portrayed." 
 
 Dottie Sandusky also wrote of her disappointment, saying she has lost faith in the police and the legal system. "To think that they can lie and get by with the lies. The press has been unbelievable. People who have not met us are writing untruths." 
 
 Dottie Sandusky's letter is revealing because she has stood silently by her husband in court. She testified at his trial that she never heard or saw anything strange or sexual going on in the basement of their home, where many of the victims say her husband molested them. 
 
 In her letter, she unloaded on her adopted son, Matt. 
 
 "People need to know what kind of person he is," she wrote. "We have forgiven him many times for all he has done to our family, thinking that he was changing his life, but he would always go back to his stealing and lies. He has been diagnose (sic) Bipolar, but he refuses to take his medicine." 
 
 Records from Centre County's probation department and juvenile courts tell part of the story of how Matt H., as he was known, came to the Sanduskys. 
 
 Like the boys who testified against Sandusky at the trial, Matt participated in Sandusky's youth mentoring program, The Second Mile. Jerry Sandusky was in Southern California, preparing for the Rose Bowl, when Matt was arrested in 1995. Sandusky called personally and pulled strings to make sure Matt was placed under his care and not sent to juvenile detention. 
 
 Opinion: For the victims, it's about more than locking him up 
 
 The court documents detail Matt's continuing troubles, including an aspirin overdose in March 1996 that is characterized as a suicide attempt. But he maintained that he wanted to stay in the Sandusky home, writing to the court, "I feel that they have supported me even when I have messed up. They are a loving, caring group of people. They have showed me what a family is really like." 
 
 In another instance, Sandusky called police to his house, claiming a burglar was trying to break in. It was Matt, who said he had come to the house for a power tool. 
 
 Matt Sandusky now is represented by a law firm in State College that is handling the cases of several other Sandusky molestation victims. 
 
 "Matt is extremely disappointed that Dottie and the Sanduskys have decided to smear his character in an attempt to deflect attention from Jerry Sandusky's heinous crimes," his lawyers Justine Andronici and Andrew Shubin said in a written statement to CNN. 
 
 "Matt has shown tremendous courage and strength," the statement continued. "Rather than supporting her son when he made the gut-wrenching decision to come forward and tell the truth about the abuse he suffered at the hands of Jerry Sandusky, Dottie Sandusky has chosen to continue Jerry's strategy of blaming and attacking the victims, thereby perpetuating the abuse." 
 
 Dottie Sandusky wrote that her adopted son "has had many run-ins with the law and stolen money and items from our family. We still love him and want the best for him, but because of his actions we cannot express this to him. ..." 
 
 Karl Rominger, a lawyer for Sandusky, did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for the State Attorney General's office said prosecutors "stand by" what they said Tuesday about Sandusky's victim and system bashing. 
 
 The lead prosecutor, Joseph McGettigan, described Sandusky's behavior as "banal, self-delusional, completely untethered from reality. It was entirely-self-focused, as if he himself were the victim." 
 
 Jerry Sandusky trial: All you need to know about allegations, how case unfolded ||||| Pennsylvania's public employee pension system said Wednesday it will revoke Jerry Sandusky's $59,000 annual pension in the wake of his conviction and sentence in the child sexual abuse scandal. 
 
 Former Penn State University assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky is driven from the Centre County Courthouse after being sentenced in Bellefonte, Pa., Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2012. Sandusky was sentenced... (Associated Press) 
 
 Former Penn State University assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, center, is taken from the Centre County Courthouse by Centre County Sheriff Denny Nau, left, and a deputy, after being sentenced in... (Associated Press) 
 
 The State Employees' Retirement System notified Sandusky by letter that his crimes triggered forfeiture of his pension. The former Penn State assistant football coach was sentenced Tuesday to at least 30 years in prison for molesting 10 boys. 
 
 The retirement system told Sandusky he will no longer receive his $4,908 monthly annuity and informed his wife, Dottie, she is no longer entitled to a survivor's benefit. 
 
 Sandusky's lawyer, Karl Rominger, contended the agency has no legal grounds for revoking the pension and said Sandusky will fight any attempt to do so. 
 
 "It's my inclination to believe that they are just going through the motions to try to throw some red meat to the public, but they know they are going to lose," Rominger said. 
 
 Pennsylvania's pension forfeiture law, originally passed in 1978, primarily applies to public employees convicted of a financial crime related to the office "or when his public employment places him in a position to commit the crime." 
 
 Since 2004, it has also applied to any public school employee convicted of a sex crime against a student. 
 
 In its letter to Sandusky, the retirement system said it had determined that two of the criminal charges of which Sandusky was convicted _ involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and indecent assault _ fell under the forfeiture law. 
 
 It also said Sandusky maintained extensive ties to Penn State after his 1999 retirement, qualifying him as a "de facto" employee subject to forfeiture for crimes committed even when he was no longer on the university's payroll. 
 
 SERS' letter to Sandusky was released to The Associated Press in response to an open-records request. 
 
 Rominger argued in part that since Sandusky wasn't convicted of molesting a Penn State student, the forfeiture law does not apply to him. Sandusky's young victims came to him through The Second Mile, his charity for troubled youth. 
 
 "It did not involve students where he worked, and that's going to be the crux," Rominger said. 
 
 But Philadelphia attorney Alaine Williams, an expert on public employee labor law, said courts have broadly construed the forfeiture law. 
 
 "I think he's got a very serious problem," she said ahead of the retirement system's announcement. 
 
 Sandusky entered the State Employees' Retirement System when he began working as a Penn State football coach in 1969. He collected a $148,000 lump sum payment when he retired from the university in 1999, and began receiving a monthly annuity, according to records provided by SERS. Sandusky received a total of $900,000 in pension payments between 1999 and September 2012. 
 
 The forfeiture statute permits an employee to keep his or her contributions without interest, minus any fees or restitution association with the employee's conviction. Employees subject to forfeiture can appeal to the board of the State Employees' Retirement System, then through the state court system. ||||| Former Penn State University assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky arrives at the Centre County Courthouse in Bellefonte, Pa., for a sentencing hearing. Sandusky was convicted of sexually abusing 10 boys in a scandal that rocked the university and brought down Hall of Fame coach Joe Paterno. 
 
 Oct. 9, 2012 Former Penn State University assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky arrives at the Centre County Courthouse in Bellefonte, Pa., for a sentencing hearing. Sandusky was convicted of sexually abusing 10 boys in a scandal that rocked the university and brought down Hall of Fame coach Joe Paterno. Matt Rourke/AP 
 
 Jerry Sandusky rested his elbows on the wooden lectern and leaned toward the judge. He didn’t speak of remorse or plead for leniency, as many convicted felons do at sentencing. Instead, the former assistant football coach launched into a rallying speech, the type he might have once presented during an especially tough game at Penn State, where some remember him as “Touchdown Jerry.” 
 
 “We’re definitely in the fourth quarter now,” said Sandusky, 68, who was convicted in June on 45 counts of sexually abusing 10 young boys. “We will continue to fight. There’s much to fight.” 
 
 Though Sandusky has maintained his innocence and argued publicly that he was targeted by a “veteran accuser” who conspired against him, Judge John M. Cleland on Tuesday ordered the former Penn State University coach — and now notorious child molester — to spend at least 30 years in prison. 
 
 “That has the unmistakable impact of saying, clearly, for the rest of your life,” Cleland told Sandusky, in handing down a sentence that could range from 30 to 60 years. “You abused the trust of those who trusted you. . . . The crime is not only what you did to their bodies, but your assault to their psyches and souls.” 
 
 Sandusky’s methods of luring victims have been detailed in grand jury reports and trial testimony, horrifying and stunning the residents of Happy Valley and toppling the storied Penn State football program he helped build. Some of Penn State’s most powerful leaders, including the late legendary football coach Joe Paterno, have been accused of knowing about the abuse and not taking enough action to stop it. 
 
 But Sandusky’s methods, it turned out, were a textbook example of how abusers operate. Sandusky met his young victims through a mentoring program he started for at-risk children, Second Mile. He slowly built their trust and earned their admiration by showering them with attention and gifts, involving them in Penn State’s revered football culture and being the father figure they lacked. He also became skilled at deflecting accusations of impropriety. 
 
 Eight victims testified against Sandusky at his trial. Two other victims have never been identified, but jurors heard from those who witnessed or heard about their abuse. On June 22, a local jury found Sandusky guilty of 45 of the 48 charges against him, which included several counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse spanning more than a decade. 
 
 “He promised to be my friend and mentor,” one victim wrote in a statement that lead prosecutor Joseph E. McGettigan III read aloud in court. “Jerry Sandusky humiliated me beyond description.” 
 
 Three victims pleaded with the judge Tuesday morning to give Sandusky a sentence that matched their anguish and hurt. The Washington Post generally does not identify victims of sex crimes. 
 
 A young man known in court records as “Victim 4” stared at Sandusky as he said: “I don’t forgive you, and I don’t know if I ever will forgive you. I grew up in a bad situation, and you only made it worse.” 
 
 After emotional statements from the victims, Sandusky took the stand, wearing a bright red jumpsuit with “Centre County” written in black letters on the back. He was noticeably thinner than when he entered jail three months ago, at one point stopping to hike up his sagging pants. 
 
 Sandusky again insisted he is innocent and said he is the victim of a conspiracy driven by the lies of troubled young men. Sandusky detailed life in the county jail, where he lives in a small cell and fills his time with meditation, reading, writing and exercising. 
 
 “Others can take away my life. They can make me out as a monster. They can treat me as a monster. But they can’t take away my heart,” Sandusky said. “In my heart, I know I did not do these alleged disgusting acts.” 
 
 Sandusky’s words angered prosecutors, civil attorneys and victim advocates who attended the hearing. McGettigan said after the hearing that Sandusky seemed “completely untethered from reality.” 
 
 When the sentence was announced, Sandusky stared down briefly. After court recessed, he spoke with his attorney, smiling broadly and laughing. The former coach was then led away by officers. 
 
 Joe Amendola, Sandusky’s lead attorney, said he plans to file an appeal. After the hearing, Amendola counted off his complaints: The defense was forced to go to court before it could properly prepare; no one would listen to Sandusky’s side of the story; the victims were not trustworthy. 
 
 The ramifications of Sandusky’s actions are far-reaching. Days after Sandusky’s arrest in November 2011, Paterno and Penn State President Graham Spanier lost their jobs, along with their sterling reputations. This summer, the university removed an iconic statue of Paterno that stood outside the football stadium. 
 
 Investigators hired by Penn State concluded that some of the university’s most powerful leaders failed to protect children from abuse. The NCAA punished Penn State for Sandusky’s crimes, fining the school $60 million, vacating previous football wins and barring the team from postseason play. 
 
 Two former Penn State officials, Tim Curley and Gary Schultz, have been charged with perjury and failure to report child abuse. Their trial is scheduled for January. 
 
 Still, Tuesday’s hearing, just a few days after Penn State’s homecoming win over Northwestern, brought some closure. 
 
 “We all have a sense of relief that Jerry Sandusky is going to die in prison, that he’s not going to be able to do this again,” said Matt Casey, a Philadelphia attorney whose firm represents several victims, including one of Sandusky’s adopted sons.
– Jerry Sandusky and his wife, Dottie, blamed his victims for his sex abuse conviction in letters written to the judge before his sentencing earlier this week. Instead of expressing regret, the Sanduskys labeled the young men ingrates and liars in the letters, which have now been made public, CNN reports. Sandusky pointed out that the boys came from unstable homes. "Nobody mentioned the impact of abandonment, neglect, abuse, insecurity, and conflicting messages that the biological parents might have had in this," he wrote. The couple, echoing a recording Sandusky made before sentencing, blamed his downfall on a vast conspiracy involving police and the media. In one letter, Dottie describes the couple's adopted son, Matt, who accuses Sandusky of molesting him, as a liar and a thief, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. A spokesman for the state attorney general's office describes Sandusky's behavior as "banal, self-delusional, completely untethered from reality. It was entirely-self-focused, as if he himself were the victim." Sandusky was sentenced to between 30 and 60 years in prison and Pennsylvania's public employee pension system says it is revoking his $59,000 annual pension, the AP reports.