Day 2 set in hearing on alleged cover-up
HARRISBURG — Lawyers will regroup for a second day of testimony in a hearing for three former Penn State officials ensnared in the Jerry Sandusky child sex-abuse scandal, a day after a star witness testified that legendary head coach Joe Paterno had been critical of how the university handled it.
Today's hearing in a Harrisburg courtroom is expected to be short, with just two witnesses.
The judge, William Wenner, must decide whether prosecutors showed enough evidence against the ex-school officials to test the charges in a full trial.
The charges, including perjury, conspiracy and endangering the welfare of children, stem from allegations that former Penn State president Graham Spanier, retired university vice president Gary Schultz and ex-athletic director Tim Curley failed to tell police about an allegation against Sandusky, a former assistant football coach, and then tried to hide what they knew.
In Monday's hearing, the star witness, Mike McQueary testified in a courtroom for the third time since Sandusky's November 2011 arrest that top school officials knew he had seen Sandusky molesting a boy in a locker room shower.
But the former Penn State assistant coach and quarterback also delivered some unexpected testimony — that the late Hall of Fame coach Paterno had told him over the years that university administrators “screwed up” in how they responded to McQueary's allegation against Sandusky.
Pressed by defense lawyers about his discussions of the subject, McQueary brought up a specific exchange at football practice in the hours before Paterno's firing on Nov. 9, 2011 — four days after Sandusky's arrest.
He recalled the head coach saying the school would come down hard on McQueary and try to make him a scapegoat. Paterno also advised McQueary not to trust the administration or then-university counsel Cynthia Baldwin, the former assistant testified.
Make sure to get your own lawyer, he said Paterno told him.Lawyers for Spanier, Schultz and Curley say the men are innocent. Paterno died in January 2012. He has never been charged.The core of McQueary's testimony is that he saw Sandusky and a boy engaged in a sex act in the locker room shower in 2001 and within days reported it to Paterno, Curley and Schultz.However, Curley and Schultz have said McQueary never reported that the encounter was sexual in nature, while Spanier has said Curley and Schultz never told him about any sort of sex abuse.
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