Pennsylvania State University has agreed to pay $59.7 million to settle 26 cases involving people allegedly sexually abused by former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, the Legal Intelligencer reports. The announcement confirms what was reported over the summer that the university settled with the majority of plaintiffs who said they had been abused by Sandusky. Sandusky was convicted last year on 45 of 48 counts of child sexual abuse.
The university confirmed it received a total of 32 claims from alleged victims, and said that some have been rejected as being without merit. All of the victims who testified against Sandusky in the criminal case negotiated with Penn State. The man known as Victim 2, who Mike McQueary, a former assistant coach, said he saw Sandusky molest in a shower in 2001, also negotiated with the university. Others, including a man named Travis Weaver, who went public after testimony closed in Sandusky’s trial, and Matt Sandusky, Sandusky’s adopted son, sought settlements with Penn State as well.