Paterno up for $500K pension; Sandusky gets $60K

Penn State football coach Joe Paterno stands on the field before his team's NCAA college football game against Northwestern in Evanston, Ill., Oct. 22, 2011. / AP Photo

HARRISBURG, Pa. - Former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno's long service at the university theoretically puts him in line for a pension of more than $500,000 a year, according to an Associated Press analysis of state public pension records.

Meanwhile, Paterno's one-time heir apparent, whose arrest on child sex-abuse charges led to the longtime coach's ouster, collects nearly $60,000 annually from his pension.

Paterno's pension records obtained Tuesday from the State Employees' Retirement System credit him with more than 60 years in the system. The formula used to determine benefits makes him eligible for a pension equal to 100 percent of the average of his three highest-salary years.

His pay rose from $541,000 to $568,000 over the past three full calendar years.

Paterno, 84, lost his job as head football coach last week after his former top assistant Jerry Sandusky was charged with sexually abusing boys, including some on campus, for more than 15 years.

The retirement system also confirmed Tuesday that Sandusky collects a $59,000 annual pension and withdrew $148,000 upon retirement.

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When Paterno retires, he will have to make a set of choices to determine his pension, including whether to designate a survivor to receive benefits after he dies and whether to obtain a one-time, lump-sum payment of his own contributions.

State Employees' Retirement System spokeswoman Pamela Hile said Internal Revenue Code and Retirement Code benefit limits may also apply, so the agency does not issue estimated pension benefits ahead of time. There also is a long-service supplement that could boost Paterno to 110 percent of his final average salary.

A 2006 report on Pennsylvania state pensions said the largest pension at that time within SERS was $254,000, being collected by a Penn State surgery professor who had withdrawn a $554,000 lump sum.

The New York Times also reported Tuesday night that Paterno transferred full ownership of his house to his wife, Sue, for $1 in July. The couple had previously held joint ownership of the house. Paterno's attorney Wick Sollers told the paper in an e-mail that the transfer had nothing to do with the scandal but was part of an ongoing "multiyear estate planning program."

Paterno has not been charged with any crime, and state prosecutors have said he is not a target. But he has come under criticism for how he responded when a graduate assistant said he saw Sandusky sexually attacking a boy in the football team locker room shower. A grand jury report said Paterno contacted the athletic director but did not go to police, and he has said he wishes he had done more.

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Sandusky has denied the allegations against him, acknowledging he showered with young boys and hugged them but saying his behavior was nothing more than horseplay. He told NBC News' "Rock Center" on Monday that he is not a pedophile but should not have showered with the boys he's charged with sexually assaulting.

[Harold3225]

There is no defending Joe. He is not the hero we wanted him to be. He is a coward, McQueary is a coward, Curly and Shultz are cowards and its over. I doubt that Joe will spend even one day in jail, but he certainly does deserve it. Just living with knowing that you did nothing to protect little boys from horrid abuse is pretty severe punishment and he is an old guy so he'll probably get a break, but we don't need to talk about him like he's a hero and doesn't deserve what he is getting. He deserves it. Those little boys deserved a hero to stand up to Sandusky and stop him, but they didn't get one. If you listen to what McQueary said in the GJ report, it sounds as if he walked in on two consenting adults having sex in the shower. It was a little child, a CHILD.

[Harold3225]

rafterman, a cover-up of a rape is a crime. Joe saw the perp on campus, at games, at functions, around the college, everyday for ten years with children and he did nothing. Did you even read the Grand Jury report. Sandusky was prohibited from using the facilities after 2002 and from bringing children around the campus. Joe was aware of this and he did nothing to stop it. Sandusky continued to bring children on campus and continued to use the facilities.

[LoadedAndDangerous]

Why not, look at how much the politicians have been taking from us for years and we beg for more by re-electing the sleeze bags.

[Ceres6]

Right now that coach Paterno is on the ground and trying to get up, it seems that there is a tough competition among sport news reporters to see who can deliver the greatest kick to the teeth of the fallen coach. What a great opportunity to advance in the corporate world. All these morons together have not done even 1% of the good done by Mr. Paterno during his illustrious career. For instance, Nick Summers from the Daily Beast is one more of those morons. It is very upsetting to see the innuendo, suppositions, the lies being said to destroy Mr. Paterno's career. It has been reported that the police was actually notified the same day by McQueary about the sexual abuse being committed. I am sure all these reporters feel brave attacking Paterno, but they will tremble as chickens to confront the police. Even the titles to some of their story will make some readers believe that Paterno himself was the one who committed the sexual abuse. It looks Nick Sumers is frustrated he could not find anything else against Paterno. All these reporters are trying to show they are saints in their private lives. I will enjoy every second when later in the future, it is published that they are not what they pretended to be. With the stick you measure you will be measured.

[Harold3225]

TAKE THE STUPID STATUE DOWN. THE MAN IS NOT WHO WE THOUGHT HE WAS. HE IS NOT A HERO. HE IS A COWARD.

[Harold3225]

Joe should not need his pension since he should be in prison for the rest of his life along with McQueary, Curly, Shultz, the president, the janitor, and anyone else who knew about these horrible crimes. You don't stop with telling just one person. You tell anybody and everybody until you get to the person who will do something to stop it including going to the media and getting the story on the nightly news. Hearsay rules only apply in court, not to reporting a crime. Anyone with information about a crime MUST report it to authorities and not college authorities, but REAL authority. All the parties involved including the janitor should go to jail. They are all culpable. Fans just don't get it. Hanging the perpetrator doesn't settle the matter. The entire "Cover-up Club" has to be SEVERELY punished for these crimes or we are saying as a society that what they did wasn't that bad and football is just too important and we don't care that much that they didn't do the right thing. EVERYBODY INVOLVED IN THIS HORRIBLE INCIDENT HAS TO GO DOWN IN FLAMES!!! PENN STATE SUCKS!!!

[carolo43]

Those pensions need to be stopped to pay the civil suits that will come from this. But why is everyone blaming Mike McQueary? Two years BEFORE McQueary witnessed this rape, the janitor of the college did, as well. I don't hear everyone complaining that he didn't do more and run over and beat up Sandusky. Had more been done then, McQueary would not have been in this position two years later. He claimed he immediately left the locker room and called his father. Don't you call your father when you just do not know what to do? The following day McQueary and his father went to report this to Paterno. Maybe he didn't do exactly as you and I would do but he did report it and it was Paterno who did not follow through. Sandusky should have been GONE after the first incident.

[bikerb54]

Spoken like a true whiner! McQueary was an adult who now says he did go to the cops and he did stop the abuse? Yeah, Right. Wonder if he can spell Perjury? The ball was dropped in '98 when the cops and the DA refused to press charges. Paterno did his job and did what the state of PA considers legal in a child abuse case. Paterno did not witness the abuse so what he had to say is called hear say! Joe does deserve his pension. No matter what the opinion of him is, he was a damned good coach and he took his job seriously. He loves Penn State-just look at the gifts he gave. He's lived in State College his whole professional life in the same little house he and Sue bought. I'm tired of people like you focusing on him like he's the one that committed the crime! He could have taken it further, and admits it was a mistake not to. Now you are all judging him before all the facts are in. Hell, Sandusky isn't being treated as shabbily as Joe, and neither is McQueary! Curley and the rest have even has a postponement of their prelims. You, the media and the rest of the haters have cost this man, who never did anything to hurt anyone, everything. Put yourself in his place! How would you have handled it-and don't tell me you would have gone higher! How do you know for sure until you actually had to face it? So....Carolo43-get over yourself and remember...you have no right to judge. When you have lived your life with no regrets about what you could have done, with no sins, with no hatred in your heart for anyone, then you have the right to judge. Until then SHUT UP!

[retiredgustav]

Nobody deserves a pension of a Half a million a year, especially when they are a government employee.