After five years of maintaining their innocence, two former Pennsylvania State University administrators pleaded guilty to child endangerment for not reporting Jerry Sandusky’s sexual abuse of children, reports the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. In return for the pleas, prosecutors dropped the more serious felony charges of conspiracy against ex-athletic director Tim Curley and former vice president Gary Schultz. The pleas marked an unexpected turn in a lingering case that has divided the Penn State community for years. over who may have ignored or missed a chance to stop a serial sexual predator once deeply embedded in its football program.
It narrowed the spotlight to the lone remaining defendant, former university president Graham Spanier, the once highly regarded administrator who led Penn State for 16 years. Jury selection for his trial is slated for next Monday. All three men were accused of failing to inform police or child welfare investigators of a 2001 report by Mike McQueary, then a football program graduate assistant, that he saw Sandusky, the former assistant coach, sexually assault a boy in a locker-room shower. Curley, 62, and Schultz, 67, were charged at the same time as Sandusky in 2011. Prosecutors waited another year to bring charges against Spanier. Now 68, he has steadfastly maintained his innocence.
Editors Note: For an additional perspective on the Sandusky case, see the TCR Viewpoint column, “Why Jerry Sandusky May be Innocent.”