Key figure updates
Two years after the arrest of Jerry Sandusky on child molestation charges, the scandal continues to play out. An update on some of the key figures:
<b>JERRY SANDUSKY </b>Role: Former assistant football coach and founder of The Second Mile charity for children, he was convicted of sexually abusing 10 boys over 15 years.Background: Arrested in November 2011 after an investigation by a statewide grand jury. He had been a successful defensive coach for the Nittany Lions for 30 years.Charges: Convicted in June 2012 of indecent assault, unlawful contact with a minor, corruption of minors and endangering a child's welfare.Status: Sandusky was sentenced to 30 to 60 years in prison, effectively a life term.<b>JOE PATERNO </b>Role: The longtime head football coach was told by former assistant football coach Mike McQueary in 2001 that he was deeply disturbed by seeing Sandusky and a boy in a shower on campus. Paterno relayed the report to Curley and Schultz.Background: Penn State's head coach from 1966 through 2011 and major college football's winningest coach when he retired, Paterno offered to resign at the end of the 2011 season but trustees ousted him for “failure of leadership” surrounding allegations about Sandusky. He died of complications from lung cancer in January 2012. An investigation led by ex-FBI Director Louis Freeh said Paterno “was an integral part of this active decision to conceal” the abuse and that his firing was justified.<b>GRAHAM SPANIER </b>Role: Penn State's longtime president, he was forced out of the top job by university trustees after Sandusky's arrest but remains a tenured faculty member on paid administrative leave.Background: Freeh concluded that Spanier failed in his duties as president by not informing trustees about the allegations against Sandusky or the subsequent grand jury inquiry.Spanier has initiated a lawsuit against Freeh.He has been charged, along with former athletic director Tim Curley and former vice president Gary Schultz, with an alleged criminal cover-up.Charges: Perjury, child endangerment, conspiracy, obstruction, failure to report suspected child abuse. Awaits trial.<b>MIKE MCQUEARY </b>Role: Former assistant football coach. He was a graduate assistant in 2001, when he says he witnessed Sandusky pressing himself against a boy in a team shower. McQueary took his complaint to Paterno.Background: He testified at Sandusky's trial that he had “no doubt” Sandusky was molesting the boy. He has since filed a whistleblower lawsuit against the university.<b>TIM CURLEY </b>Role: Penn State athletic director, now retired.Background: Curley fielded McQueary's complaint about Sandusky in a team shower with a boy in 2001. He told a grand jury he instructed Sandusky not to be inside university facilities with any young people but said he did not think anything criminal had occurred.Charges: Perjury, child endangerment, conspiracy, obstruction, failure to report suspected child abuse. Awaits trial.<b>GARY SCHULTZ </b>Role: Penn State senior vice president for business and finance, now retired.Background: Schultz told the grand jury that Paterno and McQueary reported the 2001 shower incident “in a very general way” but did not provide details. He said he believed Sandusky and the boy were “horsing around” but that no criminal activity occurred.Charges: Perjury, child endangerment, conspiracy, obstruction, failure to report suspected child abuse. Awaits trial.<b>TOM CORBETT </b>Role: Republican governor of Pennsylvania, he was attorney general when the investigation into Sandusky was launched.Background: Corbett is an ex-officio member of the Penn State Board of Trustees, although he did not actively participate until after Sandusky was charged.Corbett filed an antitrust lawsuit over the NCAA sanctions but his case was dismissed earlier this year by a federal judge who said she could find nothing “that might nudge its conspiracy claim into 'plausible' territory.”
