Penn St ex-coach, others charged in child sex case

[Stewie]

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) — A former defensive coordinator who was integral for decades to Penn State's success in football was accused Saturday of sexually abusing eight boys, and the school's athletic director and an administrator were charged with perjury and failing to report what they knew about the allegations in a case that prosecutor said uncovered a years-long trail of a predator and those who protected him.


Former coach Jerry Sandusky, 67, of State College, was arrested Saturday and released on $100,000 bail after being arraigned on 40 criminal counts, the state attorney general's office said. Athletic director Tim Curley, 57, and Penn State vice president for finance and business Gary Schultz, 62, both of Boalsburg, were expected to turn themselves in Monday in Harrisburg. Schultz's position includes oversight of the university's police department.


Longtime head coach Joe Paterno, who has more victories than any coach in the history of Division I football, was not charged, authorities said, and the grand jury report did not appear to implicate him in wrongdoing.


When Paterno first learned of one report of abuse he immediately reported it to Curley, prosecutors said. Sandusky was no longer coaching at the time and it's not clear whether Paterno followed up with Curley.


Closely identified with the school's reputation as a defensive powerhouse and a program that produced top-quality linebackers, Sandusky retired in 1999 but continued to work with at-risk children through the nonprofit Second Mile organization he founded in 1977. He was charged with multiple counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, corruption of minors, endangering the welfare of a child, indecent assault and unlawful contact with a minor, as well as single counts of aggravated indecent assault and attempted indecent assault. A preliminary hearing for Sandusky is scheduled for Wednesday, but his lawyer told reporters it would likely be delayed.


"He's shaky, as you can expect," defense attorney Joe Amendola told WJAC-TV outside the arraignment hearing. "Being 67 years old, never having faced criminal charges in his life, and having the distinguished career that he's had, these are very serious allegations."


Amendola said Sandusky has been aware of the allegations for about three years and has maintained his innocence.


The allegations range from sexual touching to oral and anal sex, and victims testified they were in their early teens when some of the abuse occurred.


Attorney General Linda Kelly called Sandusky "a sexual predator who used his position within the university and community to repeatedly prey on young boys."


The grand jury said eight boys who were targets of sexual advances or assaults by Sandusky from 1994 to 2009. None were named, and in at least one case, the jury said the child's identity remains unknown to authorities.


One accuser, now 27, testified that Sandusky initiated contact with a "soap battle" in the shower that led to multiple instances of involuntary sexual intercourse and indecent assault at Sandusky's hands, the grand jury report said.


Victim 4, as he was identified in the jury report, said he traveled to charity functions and Penn State games with Sandusky, even being listed as a member of Sandusky's family's party for the 1998 Outback Bowl and 1999 Alamo Bowl.


"Sandusky did threaten to send him home from the Alamo Bowl in Texas when Victim 4 resisted his advances," the report said, and Sandusky gave him clothes, shoes, a snowboard, golf clubs, hockey gear and football jerseys.


"Sandusky even guaranteed Victim 4 that he could be a walk-on player at Penn State," and the boy appeared with Sandusky in a photo in Sports Illustrated, the jury said. He testified that Sandusky once gave him $50 to buy marijuana, drove him to purchase it, and then drove him home as the boy smoked the drug, according to the report.


"This was when Victim 4 was trying to distance himself from Sandusky because he wanted no more sexual contact with him," the jurors said.
Another child, Victim 8, as jurors named him, is known only as a boy, about 11 to 13, who was seen pinned against a wall, by a janitor who observed Sandusky performing oral sex on him in fall 2000, the jury said.
No one answered a knock at the door Saturday at Sandusky's modest, two-story brick home at the end of a dead-end road in State College.


As stunning as the charges were the names implicated at a school where the football program is known for its consistency as much as its success — a big change this year was the removal of white trim from players' uniforms.


The report accuses Curley and Schultz of knowing some details of accusations of sex abuse against Sandusky but failing to tell authorities what they knew.


"It is also a case about high-ranking university officials who allegedly failed to report the sexual assault of a young boy after the information was brought to their attention, and later made false statements to a grand jury," Kelly said.


Lawyers for both men issued statements saying they were innocent of all charges.


Prosecutors said all of the young men first encountered Sandusky through Second Mile.


The first to come to light was a boy who met Sandusky when he was 11 or 12, the grand jury said. The boy received expensive gifts and trips to sports events from Sandusky, and physical contact began during his overnight stays at Sandusky's home, jurors said. Eventually, the boy's mother reported the allegations of sexual assault to his high school, and Sandusky was banned from the child's school district in Clinton County in 2009. That triggered the state investigation that culminated in charges Saturday.


The report alleges much earlier instances of abuse, and efforts by some who knew of it to stop it, to no avail.


Kelly said that in 2002, a graduate assistant saw Sandusky sexually assault a naked boy, estimated to be about 10 years old, in the locker room of the Lasch Football Building on campus. The grad student and his father reported what he saw to Paterno, who immediately told Curley, prosecutors said.


Curley and Schultz met with the graduate assistant about a week and a half later, Kelly said. Nothing happened.


"Despite a powerful eyewitness statement about the sexual assault of a child, this incident was not reported to any law enforcement or child protective agency, as required by Pennsylvania law," Kelly said.


There's no indication that anyone at school attempted to find the boy, or follow up with the witness, she said.


Curley denied that the assistant had reported anything of a sexual nature, calling it "merely 'horsing around,'" the 23-page grand jury report said.
But the jury said Curley was lying, Kelly said, adding that it also deemed portions of Schultz's testimony not to be credible.


Curley testified that he barred Sandusky from bringing children onto campus and that he advised Penn State president Graham Spanier of the matter.


Schultz told the jurors he also knew of a 1998 investigation involving sexually inappropriate behavior by Sandusky with a boy in the showers the football team used. But despite his job overseeing campus police, he never reported the 2002 allegations to any authorities, "never sought or received a police report on the 1998 incident and never attempted to learn the identity of the child in the show in 2002," the jurors wrote.


"No one from the university did so."


Spanier released a statement calling the allegations against Sandusky "troubling" and adding Curley and Schultz had his unconditional support.
He predicted they will be exonerated.


"I have known and worked daily with Tim and Gary for more than 16 years," he said. "I have complete confidence in how they handled the allegations about a former university employee."


Sandusky, once considered a potential successor to Paterno, drew up the defenses for the Nittany Lions' national-title teams in 1982 and 1986. The team is enjoying another successful run this season; at 8-1, Penn State is ranked No. 16 in the AP Top 25 and is the last undefeated squad in Big Ten play. The Nittany Lions were off Saturday.

[suzzer99]

Originally Posted by FringeNC

This story doesn't seem so feel-good anymore:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vau...7979/index.htm

On July 1, when Sandusky announced his intention to retire, one of the first calls he received was from Matt Millen, a Penn State All-America in 1978, who greeted him with, "It figures that the guy who has been there for 30 years would get out before the guy who has been there for 50."

Matt Millen's winning streak continues.

Working under Paterno takes something out of a man, too. Sandusky was asked last week if he'll miss Joe Pa. "Well, not exactly," he said. "You have to understand that so much of our time was spent under stress, figuring out how to win. That takes a toll. We've had our battles. I've quit. I've been fired. I've walked around the building to cool off." Paterno says, "I'm not the easiest guy to work with." Millen puts it another way: "Figuratively speaking, that Paterno nose is everywhere."

Um, ok. I'd say 95% chance Paterno and everyone at PSU pushed him out for the 1998 allegations, and thus knew he was leaving PSU to spend even more time with kids. Ugh.

at heart, E.J. says, Sandusky is "a frustrated playground director." E.J. remembers the kickball games his father organized in the backyard. "Dad would get every single kid involved," says E.J. "We had the largest kickball games in the United States, kickball games with 40 kids."

Says Millen, "A lot of people were surprised when Jerry said he was retiring. Me? I was surprised he stayed that long. Jerry has so many passions and so many gifts besides coaching football—a gift for teaching, a gift for helping, a gift for guiding kids. This is a man with a lot to do."

[eazyb81]

Originally Posted by OnTheWarpath58

I'll take the risk of career suicide every time over a lifetime of guilt due to not reporting something like this.

How many kids were victims because no one spoke up or went to police?

Yeah, I just can't buy being scared about your career as an excuse to not speak up in this situation. This is not something like scrubbing the numbers in the accounting department or talking crap about some fat chick in HR. This is serious, life-altering stuff.

[Stewie]

Apparently Sandusky was working out at the PSU football facility just last week (several times).

How in the world is Paterno allowing that, knowing all the people that testified to a grand jury about these allegations?

[eazyb81]

How in the world did the GA, Mike McQueary, not at least take the child away from the situation when he walked in on Sandusky raping the kid in the Penn State shower?

It sounds like he saw it happening and then immediately left to call his dad. That inaction makes me want to vomit.

[LiveSteam]

Originally Posted by eazyb81

How in the world did the GA, Mike McQueary, not at least take the child away from the situation when he walked in on Sandusky raping the kid in the Penn State shower?

It sounds like he saw it happening and then immediately left to call his dad. That inaction makes me want to vomit.

That inaction should get him arrested before all is said & done. As I understand it. In all 50 states It is illegal & a felony to watch or see such an act being preformed on a minor & not report it to thee authorities.

[Reaper16]

This is pretty much a hypothetical season 7 of The Wire. Serving an institution before your fellow human always leads to bad things.

[seamonster]

Originally Posted by The Meat Lover's Pizza Face

Disagree.

If I had a good job and saw some sick **** doing something...and then reported it to my superiors...and the superiors did nothing about it...I'd still be disgusted but I wouldn't necessarily walk out on my job. Especially if it was a good paying job.

If anything, McQueary is one of the good guys in this entire mess. He did more than anyone...it's not his fault his BOSSES squashed the entire thing. He told his dad, and then JOE PATERNO...after that, it's not really his call to do anything else.

What was he going to do? Call the police and turn it into a G.A. vs. Legend "he says, she says" battle?

You're pretty ****ing sick dude. All bets are off and reputations go out the window if I walk in and see some old ass dude violating a small child. Doesn't matter who they are, I'm calling the police after I pull myself together. Jesus man..

[Hootie]

Originally Posted by seamonster

You're pretty ****ing sick dude. All bets are off and reputations go out the window if I walk in and see some old ass dude violating a small child. Doesn't matter who they are, I'm calling the police after I pull myself together. Jesus man..

You're entitled to your opinion. So am I.

[evenfall]

In my opinion people who do this to kids should be executed. First offense.

And anybody who doesn't report it or doesn't ensure authorities find out if they know or should have known it was going on should be doing jail time.

[Shogun]

[Brock]

Originally Posted by Shogun

[kstater]

This can't be real. How does this get published?

[Reaper16]

Originally Posted by kstater

This can't be real. How does this get published?

How dare they mislead people into thinking they can make Thanksgiving happen with only ten cents?!?

[Shogun]

also wtf

[chiefzilla1501]

Originally Posted by OnTheWarpath58

I'll take the risk of career suicide every time over a lifetime of guilt due to not reporting something like this.

How many kids were victims because no one spoke up or went to police?

I know it's crazy, but you're asking a lot of McQueary.

I've read plenty of Enron case studies. A lot of people know they're doing the wrong, hate that they're doing the wrong thing, but are you willing to throw away your entire future to blow the whistle? That's a lot to ask of a guy. It makes me sick too, but the decision is a hell of a lot harder than people think.

I'm a huge Joe Pa fan, but his situation is a little different. He's in a position of power. He owns that University. I hate that he made the completely wrong moral decision on this one.