Ex-Penn State officials plead to charges in Sandusky case; Spanier left as lone defendant
by Angela Couloumbis, Susan Snyder & Jeremy Roebuck
HARRISBURG – After five years of maintaining their innocence,
two former Pennsylvania State University administrators on Monday
pleaded guilty to child endangerment for not reporting Jerry Sandusky's sexual abuse of children.
The pleas in Dauphin County Court by
ex-athletic director Tim Curley and former vice president Gary Schultz reflected an unexpected turn in the case, one of the largest scandals in the history of college athletics. They also 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 in the three men's trial was slated to begin March 20.
In return for their pleas, prosecutors dismissed felony conspiracy charges against Curley and Schultz. Each pleaded guilty to a
misdemeanor, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison. Before I get all self-righteous, proving conspiracy may have been very difficult.
["Snip!"--Ed.]
Spanier still faces the felony conspiracy and misdemeanor child endangerment charges stemming from his alleged failure 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.
["Snip!"--Ed.]
The prosecutors said the evidence would show that
the defendants became aware of two incidents – one in 1998 and the other in 2001 – in which Sandusky was caught with boys in showers. In both cases, the men allegedly shared the information with Spanier.
After the second, they met with Sandusky and ordered him not to bring boys onto campus. "But what you do to them in the privacy of your own shower. . . ."
But, the prosecutors said, they
made no effort to investigate or find the boy from the 2001 incident, and
no effort to enforce the campus ban against Sandusky -- and in the process endangered other children.
["Snip!"--Ed.]
The case has hinged on what exactly McQueary, a former Penn State quarterback hoping to join the coaching ranks, told first Paterno — and later Curley and Schultz — about what he saw in the shower in 2001. He described that scene in 2012 to jurors who ultimately convicted Sandusky of sexually assaulting multiple boys.
In multiple trips to the witness stand in related proceedings,
McQueary has asserted unequivocally that he made clear to the head coach and administrators that Sandusky’s conduct with the young boy was “way over the line and extremely sexual.”
In their own grand jury testimony,
Curley and Schultz maintained McQueary had failed to convey the seriousness of the incident, leaving them both under the impression that he witnessed merely questionable “horseplay.” A grown to middle-aged man . . . in a shower . . . with a child . . . "horseplay." I would laugh if the details conveyed by McQueary was anything but that. They also testified that’s how they described the incident to Spanier.
But a series of 2001 emails — now key to the government's case — show that the men at least considered the situation serious enough to possibly warrant police intervention. For just The Horse Play? They ultimately rejected the idea of calling authorities, opting instead to bar Sandusky from bringing children on campus,
to urge the former coach to submit to counseling and to inform his children's charity, the Second Mile, of the allegations.
"The only downside for us is if the message isn't 'heard' and acted upon," Spanier wrote, signing off on the decision. "We then become vulnerable for not having reported it. … The approach you outline is humane and a reasonable way to proceed." "'Humane' and 'reasonable' because fuck the kids, we have GAMES to win! Well, yeah, 'fuck the kids.' HA!HA!HA!HA!"
All three men had been informed in 1998 Could that be connected? Heavens to Betsy. about another investigation led by Penn State's campus police into a report that
Sandusky had showered with and potentially abused a different boy. That case never led to charges, but Curley and Schultz corresponded frequently with then-police Chief Thomas Harmon about the progress of his investigation.
So . . . like . . . no reason to inform the police about a witnessed abuse a few years later . . . no. That would be "inhumane" and, dare I write it, "unreasonable." Spanier was copied on at least two of those exchanges.
Schultz kept his hand-written notes on the 1998 investigation in a locked file that investigators found years later. They read: "Other children? Is this opening of Pandora's box?"
["Snip!"--Ed.]
But the case continues to divide many in the community, especially over what role if any their iconic football coach had in even indirectly allowing Sandusky to target or victimize children. Paterno was never charged with a crime.
Because the Cunt died.
Now, the focus will be squarely on Spanier, a marriage and family therapist by training and a family sociologist who himself said he suffered physical abuse at the end hands of his father, which left some of his supporters incredulous that he would conceal or ignore Sandusky’s attacks.
“As I have stated in the clearest possible terms, at no time during my presidency did anyone ever report to me that Jerry Sandusky was observed abusing a child or youth or engaged in a sexual act with a child or a youth,” he wrote in a 2012 letter to the trustees.
Born in South Africa — where his father fled from Nazi Germany — Spanier joined Penn State’s faculty in 1973. After a dozen years climbing the administrative ladder at other schools, he returned to Penn State as president in 1995.
He has continued to live in the State College area and frequently is spotted at Penn State events and community gatherings.
As part of his employment agreement, he continues to hold the position of professor at Penn State. He does not teach, but still draws a $600,000 salary.
["Snip!"--Ed.]
The Office of the Attorney General has wasted millions of dollars in state resources slow-playing a bogus case that relies on a falsely-exaggerated grand jury presentment,”Maribeth Roman Schmidt, a
spokeswoman Cunt for Penn Staters for Responsible Stewardship, which has been highly critical of the university’s response to the crisis, said last week.
Philadelphia Inquirer 
Defense attorney Sam Silver disputed any notion that his client and others didn't respond to the 2001 complaint about Sandusky.
