Ex-Penn St. coach charged in child sex case

A Dec. 28, 1999 file photo of Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky after the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio. / AP Photo/Eric Gay

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - A former defensive coordinator who was integral for decades to Penn State's success in football was accused Saturday of sexually abusing eight boys, and the school's athletic director and an administrator were charged with perjury and failing to report what they knew about the allegations in a case that prosecutors said uncovered a years-long trail of a predator and those who protected him.

Former coach Jerry Sandusky, 67, of State College, was arrested Saturday and released on $100,000 bail after being arraigned on 40 criminal counts, the state attorney general's office said. Athletic director Tim Curley, 57, and Penn State vice president for finance and business Gary Schultz, 62, both of Boalsburg, were expected to turn themselves in Monday in Harrisburg. Schultz's position includes oversight of the university's police department.

Longtime head coach Joe Paterno, who has more victories than any coach in the history of Division I football, was not charged, authorities said, and the grand jury report did not appear to implicate him in wrongdoing. It said that when Paterno first learned of one report of abuse, he immediately reported it to Curley, but Sandusky was no longer coaching at the time and it's not clear whether Paterno followed up with Curley.

Sandusky, closely identified with the school's reputation as a defensive powerhouse and a program that produced top-quality linebackers, retired in 1999 but continued to work with at-risk children through the nonprofit Second Mile organization he founded in 1977. He was charged with multiple counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, corruption of minors, endangering the welfare of a child, indecent assault and unlawful contact with a minor, as well as single counts of aggravated indecent assault and attempted indecent assault. A preliminary hearing for Sandusky is scheduled for Wednesday, but his lawyer told reporters it would likely be delayed.

"He's shaky, as you can expect," defense attorney Joe Amendola told WJAC-TV outside the arraignment hearing. "Being 67 years old, never having faced criminal charges in his life, and having the distinguished career that he's had, these are very serious allegations."

Amendola said Sandusky has been aware of the accusations for about three years and has maintained his innocence.

The allegations range from sexual touching to oral and anal sex, and victims testified they were in their early teens when some of the abuse occurred.

Attorney General Linda Kelly called Sandusky "a sexual predator who used his position within the university and community to repeatedly prey on young boys."

The grand jury said eight boys who were targets of sexual advances or assaults by Sandusky from 1994 to 2009. None were named, and in at least one case, the jury said the child's identity remains unknown to authorities.

One accuser, now 27, testified that Sandusky initiated contact with a "soap battle" in the shower that led to multiple instances of involuntary sexual intercourse and indecent assault at Sandusky's hands, the grand jury report said.

Victim 4, as he was identified in the jury report, said he traveled to charity functions and Penn State games with Sandusky, even being listed as a member of Sandusky's family's party for the 1998 Outback Bowl and 1999 Alamo Bowl.

"Sandusky did threaten to send him home from the Alamo Bowl in Texas when Victim 4 resisted his advances," the report said, and Sandusky gave him clothes, shoes, a snowboard, golf clubs, hockey gear and football jerseys.

"Sandusky even guaranteed Victim 4 that he could be a walk-on player at Penn State," and the boy appeared with Sandusky in a photo in Sports Illustrated, the jury said. He testified that Sandusky once gave him $50 to buy marijuana, drove him to purchase it, and then drove him home as the boy smoked the drug, according to the report.

"This was when Victim 4 was trying to distance himself from Sandusky because he wanted no more sexual contact with him," the jurors said.

Another child, Victim 8, as jurors named him, is known only as a boy, about 11 to 13, who was seen pinned against a wall, by a janitor who observed Sandusky performing oral sex on him in fall 2000, the jury said.

No one answered a knock at the door Saturday at Sandusky's modest, two-story brick home at the end of a dead-end road in State College. A man who answered the door at The Second Mile office in State College who declined to give his name said the organization had no comment.

As stunning as the charges were the names implicated at a school where the football program is known for its consistency as much as its success — a big change this year was the removal of white trim from players' uniforms.

The report accuses Curley and Schultz of knowing some details of accusations of sex abuse against Sandusky but failing to tell authorities what they knew.

"It is also a case about high-ranking university officials who allegedly failed to report the sexual assault of a young boy after the information was brought to their attention, and later made false statements to a grand jury," Kelly said.

Lawyers for both men issued statements saying they were innocent of all charges.

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[credibility2]

Now had this disgusting scandal been part of the Catholic church, SNAP and the media would be camping out on the doorsteps of Penn State demanding answers, explanations, whatever. But nothing like this will happen, because the disgusting scandal involved a precious athletic entity.

[tmn]

Oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy...

[smittyc]

They need to get the laws on the books for this type of behavior. They may be protected by the courts by hate laws, they are need to be held accounted for forced behavior.

[kenodenis]

How many more of these perverts are out there? People you'd least suspect, people who hold a high degree of respect from our young aspiring kids. Christ, is it any wonder why parents have become so protective and paranoid?

[inbethlehem]

As a Penn State alumn, this is truely sad day in Happy Valley. And yes, I have to put at least some of the blame on Joe Paterno. Simply reporting Sandusky to the administration is not enough. At a minimum, he should have followed up, and after that reported to police. No excuses there.

And if he was thinking about yet another year of coaching, I say sorry, TIME FOR JOE TO GO!

[Samlv]

Did you read the part where Paterno is clear? And the part about the guy not working for Joe when he heard about it? And the part about the AD being charged with perjury? Joe didn't do anything wrong.

[DinkWinkerton]

He may not have done anything illegal, but morally he put his football team first before the abuse and degradation of a child
You need to resign Joe Pa

[formerusmcsgt1]

If he had decided to be a priest instead, he would have had a ready-made group of conspirators more than willing to cover it up and move him around so he could abuse children all his life.

[Jhihmoac]

Thank the Maker he wasn't a man of the cloth...