Former Penn State President Graham Spanier walks from the Dauphin County Courthouse in Harrisburg, Pa., on March 24. Spanier was convicted of hushing up suspected child sex abuse by Jerry Sandusky in 2001, a decade before Sandusky was arrested for the serial molestation of young boys. Matt Rourke/AP hide caption
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Matt Rourke/AP
Former Penn State President Graham Spanier walks from the Dauphin County Courthouse in Harrisburg, Pa., on March 24. Spanier was convicted of hushing up suspected child sex abuse by Jerry Sandusky in 2001, a decade before Sandusky was arrested for the serial molestation of young boys.
Matt Rourke/AP
Three former Penn State officials will be spending a few months in jail for their failure to report former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky to authorities, back when they first heard about Sandusky’s sexual abuse of children.
Former university President Graham Spanier was given the most lenient sentence among the three men, The Associated Press reports:
“Ex-president Graham Spanier, 68, got a sentence of 4 to 12 months, with the first two to be spent in jail and the rest under house arrest.
“Former university athletic director Tim Curley, 63, received a sentence of 7 to 23 months, with three in jail. Former vice president Gary Schultz, 67, was sentenced to 6 to 23 months, with two months behind bars.”
The men were sentenced Friday. All three were convicted of misdemeanor charges of child endangerment. Spanier had also been accused of conspiracy, but a jury acquitted him on that charge.
Spanier plans to appeal, the AP writes.
Sandusky, a former assistant coach in Penn State’s football program, is serving a 30- to 60-year term in prison after he was convicted on 45 counts of child sexual abuse. His molestation of multiple boys spanned a decade and a half. He continues to appeal his sentence.
In 2001, a graduate assistant named Mike McQueary saw Sandusky abusing a boy and reported what he observed to head coach Joe Paterno, Schultz and Curley. Those men described McQueary’s account to Spanier.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that emails show the officials considering, then rejecting, the idea of reporting Sandusky to the police.
Sandusky was not arrested until 2011, a decade later.
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