Ex-Penn State President Graham Spanier Charged In Sandusky Case
HARRISBURG, Pa. (CBSNewYork/AP) — Former Penn State President Graham Spanier was charged Thursday with hushing up child molestation allegations against Jerry Sandusky, making him the third school official to be accused of crimes in the alleged cover-up.
Prosecutors also added counts against the two former underlings, Timothy Curley and Gary Schultz, who were already charged with lying to the grand jury that investigated the former Penn State assistant football coach.
Spanier was charged with perjury, obstruction, endangering the welfare of children and conspiracy. Curley and Schultz face new charges of endangering the welfare of children, obstruction and conspiracy.
"This was not a mistake by these men, this was not an oversight," said state Attorney General Linda Kelly. "It was not misjudgment on their part. This was a conspiracy of silence by top officials to actively conceal the truth."
Curley and Schultz have repeatedly asserted they are innocent, and at a news conference this summer Spanier's attorneys insisted he was never told there was anything of a sexual nature involving Sandusky and children. Messages left for their respective attorneys Thursday were not immediately returned.
The district judge in suburban Harrisburg where charges were filed said the defendants were expected in his courtroom Friday.
Sandusky, who spent decades on the Penn State staff and was defensive coordinator during two national championship seasons, was convicted in June of sexually abusing 10 boys over 15 years. He has maintained he is innocent and was transferred to a maximum security prison on Wednesday, where he is serving a 30- to 60-year sentence.
KEIDEL: From Happy Valley To Death Valley
Curley, 58, the athletic director on leave while he serves out the last year of his contract, and Schultz, 63, who has retired as vice president for business and finance, were charged a year ago with lying to the grand jury and with failing to properly report suspect child abuse. Their trial is set for early January in Harrisburg.
Spanier, 64, of State College, had been university president for 16 years when he was forced out as president after Sandusky's November 2011 arrest.
Prosecutors said all three knew of complaints involving Sandusky showering with boys in 1998 and 2001.
"They essentially turned a blind eye to the serial predatory acts committed by Jerry Sandusky," Kelly said.
The grand jury report said "the actual harm realized by this wanton failure is staggering," and listed abuse that happened after 1998.
"The continued cover-up of this incident and the ongoing failure to report placed every minor child who would come into contact with Sandusky in the future in grave jeopardy of being abused," jurors wrote.
Spanier has said he had no memory of email traffic concerning the 1998 complaint — by a woman that Sandusky had showered with her son — and only slight recollections about the 2001 complaint — by a team assistant who said he stumbled onto Sandusky sexually abusing a boy inside a campus shower.
The grand jury report included with the charges indicate Curley, Schultz and Spanier told the university's lawyer they had no documents that addressed inappropriate conduct with boys by Sandusky.
But Schultz did retain a Sandusky file in his office, the jury concluded. He told his administrative assistant Joan Coble never to look at it, according to the grand jury.
"She said it was a very unusual request and was made in a 'tone of voice' she had never heard him use before," according to the jury report.
Decisions by the three men were criticized in a detailed report commissioned by Penn State and issued this summer by a group led by former FBI Director Louis Freeh. The report concluded Spanier, Curley, Schultz and then-coach Joe Paterno concealed Sandusky's activities from the university trustees and "empowered" the abuse by giving him access to school facilities and the prestige of his university affiliation.
The Freeh report said the investigation turned up emails from 1998 in which the administrators discussed the matter, including a May 5 email from Curley to Schultz and Spanier, with "Joe Paterno" in the subject line. It read: "I have touched bases with the coach. Keep us posted. Thanks."
Spanier told the Freeh team that he believed in 2001 that the encounter amounted to "horseplay," although an email sent by him to Curley at that time reflected a much more somber tone.
In that email, Spanier was reacting to a proposal by Curley in which they would not report Sandusky to authorities but instead tell him he needed help and that he could no longer bring children into Penn State facilities.
"The only downside for us is if the message isn't 'heard' and acted upon, and we then become vulnerable for not having reported it," Spanier wrote in 2001. "The approach you outline is humane and a reasonable way to proceed."
The Freeh report said Spanier and other top officials "repeatedly concealed critical facts relating to Sandusky's child abuse" to protect the university from bad press.
Spanier's lawyers have called the Freeh report a myth, and said he would have acted in 1998, 2001 or any time if he knew a predator like Sandusky was on campus.
Your thoughts? Let us know in the comments below...
(TM and Copyright 2012 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2011 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
