BELLEFONTE, Pa. — Former Penn State President Graham Spanier and another top university official exchanged emails discussing an allegation that Jerry Sandusky molested a boy in a university shower in 2001 but ultimately decided against alerting child welfare authorities, NBC News reported today.

Spanier and former Vice President Gary Schultz, who headed the campus police department, agreed not to take the case to outside authorities out of concern for the retired assistant football coach, according to internal emails obtained by state law enforcement officials and given to NBC. The report aired on the “Today” show this morning.

Spanier, who was ousted in the wake of Sandusky's November arrest, did not immediately respond to an email message from The Associated Press.

The emails were discovered in the course of Louis Freeh's internal probe of the Sandusky scandal and “immediately turned over to the state attorney general,” Penn State spokesman David La Torre told The Associated Press. Freeh, a former FBI director, was hired by the Penn State Board of Trustees to investigate, among other things, what school officials knew about Sandusky's conduct and what they did with the information.

La Torre declined to comment on the contents of the emails, but said “we will continue to cooperate fully with all legal processes to determine what happened and ensure personal accountability.”

Sandusky's child sex-abuse trial began today with opening statements. He has denied the allegations that he abused 10 boys over 15 years.