HARRISBURG — The state’s highest court turned down appeals Friday by two of the three former Penn State administrators facing criminal charges alleging they covered up child abuse complaints against retired assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky.

The state Supreme Court issued a pair of unsigned orders that denied petitions for review filed by former university vice president Gary Schultz and former athletic director Tim Curley.

The court orders say the justices were not preventing the two men from raising the same issue during their criminal prosecution.

Curley and Schultz filed the sealed appeals after the grand jury supervisory judge ruled in April that he did not have jurisdiction to consider their request to have charges thrown out. At issue was the role played in their prosecution by Penn State’s then-general counsel, Cynthia Baldwin, who accompanied them to grand jury appearances.

Precisely what they argued is unclear, however, because all of the documents in the Supreme Court appeal were sealed.

Curley’s lawyer, Caroline Roberto, described the court ruling as procedural, as opposed to a substantive issue, and said it will not have a negative impact on Curley’s defense.

Curley and Schultz’s co-defendant, former Penn State president Graham Spanier, has asked a county judge to throw out the charges against him.

Sandusky, the university’s former longtime defensive football coach under head coach Joe Paterno, was convicted a year ago of dozens of counts of child sexual abuse. He’s serving a 30- to 60-year state prison sentence. He denies guilt and is appealing.

Curley and Schultz were first arrested with Sandusky in November 2011, but more charges were added against them when Spanier was charged late last year.