Key Dates In The Penn State Child Sex Abuse Case
A chronological look at the case against former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, based on grand jury reports, court appearances and testimony. Some key dates in Penn State football and since the scandal broke are included.
— 1969 — Jerry Sandusky starts his coaching career at Penn State as a defensive line coach.
— 1977 — Jerry Sandusky founds The Second Mile. It begins as a group foster home dedicated to helping troubled boys and grows into a charity dedicated to helping children with absent or dysfunctional families.
— January 1983 — Associated Press voters select Penn State as college football's national champion for the 1982 season.
— January 1987 — AP voters select Penn State as college football's national champion for the 1986 season.
— 1994 — Boy known as Victim 7 in the report meets Sandusky through The Second Mile at about age 10.
— 1994-95 — Boy known as Victim 6 meets Sandusky at a Second Mile picnic at Spring Creek Park when he is 7 or 8.
— 1995-96 — Boy known as Victim 5 meets Sandusky through The Second Mile when he is 7 or 8.
— 1996-97 — Boy known as Victim 4, at age 12 or 13, meets Sandusky while he is in his second year participating in The Second Mile.
— 1996-98 — Victim 5 is taken to the locker rooms and showers at Penn State by Sandusky when he is 8 to 10.
— Jan. 1, 1998 — Victim 4 is listed, along with Sandusky's wife, as a member of Sandusky's family party for the 1998 Outback Bowl.
— 1998 — Victim 6 is taken into the locker rooms and showers when he is 11 years old. When Victim 6 is dropped off at home, his hair is wet from showering with Sandusky. His mother reports the incident to the university police, who investigate.
Detective Ronald Schreffler would later testify that he and State College Police Department Detective Ralph Ralston, with the consent of the mother of Victim 6, eavesdropped on two conversations the mother of Victim 6 has with Sandusky. Sandusky said he has showered with other boys and Victim 6's mother tried to make Sandusky promise never to shower with a boy again, but he would not. At the end of the second conversation, after Sandusky was told he could not see Victim 6 anymore, Schreffler recalled that Sandusky said: "I understand. I was wrong. I wish I could get forgiveness. I know I won't get it from you. I wish I were dead."
Jerry Lauro, an investigator with the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare, would testify that he and Schreffler interviewed Sandusky, and that Sandusky admitted showering naked with Victim 6, admitted to hugging Victim 6 while in the shower and admitted that it was wrong.
The case was closed after then-Centre County District Attorney Ray Gricar decided there would be no criminal charge.
— June 1999 — Sandusky retires from Penn State but still holds emeritus status.
— Dec. 28, 1999 — Victim 4 is listed, along with Sandusky's wife, as a member of Sandusky's family party for the 1999 Alamo Bowl.
— Summer 2000 — Boy known as Victim 3 meets Sandusky through The Second Mile when he is between seventh and eighth grade.
— Fall 2000 — A janitor named James Calhoun observes Sandusky in the showers of the Lasch Football Building with a young boy, known as Victim 8, pinned up against the wall, performing oral sex on him. He tells other janitorial staff immediately. Fellow Office of Physical Plant employee Ronald Petrosky cleans the showers at Lasch and sees Sandusky and the boy, described as being between ages 11 and 13.
Calhoun tells other physical plant employees what he saw, including Jay Witherite, his immediate supervisor. Witherite tells him to whom he should report the incident. Calhoun was a temporary employee and never makes a report. Victim 8's identity is unknown.
— Feb. 9, 2001 — Mike McQueary, a Penn State graduate assistant, enters the locker room at Lasch. In the showers, he sees a naked boy, known as Victim 2, whose age he estimates to be 10, being subjected to what he believed was anal intercourse by a naked Sandusky, he later testified at trial. McQueary tells his own father immediately.
— February 2001 — In the morning, McQueary calls Coach Joe Paterno and goes to Paterno's home, where he reports what he has seen.
— Feb. 11, 2001 — Paterno calls Tim Curley, Penn State athletic director, to his home the next day and reports a version of what McQueary said.
— February 2001 — Later in the month, McQueary is called to a meeting with Curley and Gary Schultz, senior vice president for finance and business. The grad assistant says he reported what he saw, and Curley and Schultz say they will look into it.
— Feb. 27-28, 2001 — Curley emails Schultz and Penn State President Graham Spanier to say he talked over the situation with "Joe" and had second thoughts about how to handle the matter.
— March 2001 — Curley meets with Sandusky and tells him not to bring children into school athletic facilities.
— March 19, 2001 — Curley meets about Sandusky with Jack Raykovitz, executive director of The Second Mile, informing him of the school's response to McQueary's complaint.
— 2005-06 — Boy known as Victim 1 meets Sandusky through The Second Mile at age 11 or 12.
— Spring 2007 — During the 2007 track season, Sandusky begins spending time with Victim 1 weekly, having him stay overnight at his residence in College Township, Pa.
— Spring 2008 — End of contact with Victim 1 occurs when he is a freshman in a Clinton County high school. After the boy and his mother tell school officials Sandusky had molested him, Sandusky is barred from the school district, and the matter is reported to authorities, as law requires.
— Early 2009 — An investigation by the Pennsylvania attorney general begins when a Clinton County teenager tells authorities Sandusky inappropriately touched him several times over a four-year period.
— September 2010 — Sandusky retires from day-to-day involvement with The Second Mile, saying he wants to spend more time with family and handle personal matters.
— Nov. 5, 2011 — Sandusky is arrested and released on $100,000 bail after being arraigned on 40 criminal counts.
— Nov. 7, 2011 — Pennsylvania Attorney General Linda Kelly says Paterno is not a target of the investigation into how the school handled the accusations. But she refuses to say the same for Spanier. Curley and Schultz, who step down from their positions, surrender on charges that they failed to alert police to complaints against Sandusky.
Schultz and Curley have testified to the grand jury that McQueary never gave them graphic details or told them how serious his allegations were about Sandusky and the boy known as Victim 2.
— Nov. 8, 2011 — Possible ninth victim of Sandusky contacts state police as calls for ouster of Paterno and Spanier grow in state and beyond. Penn State abruptly cancels Paterno's regular weekly news conference.
— Nov. 9, 2011 — Paterno is fired, and Spanier, one of the nation's longest-serving college presidents, is forced out, effective immediately. Earlier in the day, Paterno announced he would retire at the end of the season. School provost and executive vice president Rodney Erickson is appointed to replace Spanier. Irate students take to the streets.
— Nov. 11, 2011 — McQueary is placed on administrative leave.
— Nov. 14, 2011 — Big Ten Conference announces it will take Paterno's name off championship trophy. Raykovitz resigns from The Second Mile.
— Nov. 15, 2011 — Sandusky tells NBC's "Rock Center" that he is not a pedophile but realizes, in retrospect, that he should not have showered with boys. He pauses and then rambles when Bob Costas asks whether he is sexually attracted to children.
— Nov. 18, 2011 — Paterno family announces he is undergoing treatment for a form of lung cancer.
— Nov. 30, 2011 — A lawsuit alleges Sandusky sexually abused a boy more than 100 times after meeting him through The Second Mile.
Dec. 3, 2011 — The New York Times reports that Sandusky told the newspaper that Paterno never spoke with him about any suspected misconduct with minors.
— Dec. 7, 2011 — Sandusky is arrested on new sex abuse charges brought by two new accusers, including one who says the abuse took place in the Sandusky home while Sandusky's wife may have been home. Sandusky, facing 52 charges based on allegations involving 10 accusers, spends the night in jail.
— Dec. 8, 2011 — Sandusky's wife, Dottie, posts his bail. She issues a statement proclaiming her husband's innocence and claims the accusers are making up their stories. Sandusky is ordered to undergo electronic monitoring.
— Dec. 13, 2011 — Sandusky waives a preliminary hearing at which he could have faced his accusers, moving a step closer to trial.
— Dec. 16, 2011 — McQueary testifies during a preliminary hearing for Curley and Schultz and says he believes he saw Sandusky molesting a boy but stops short of saying he was sure Sandusky raped the child. A judge rules there is enough evidence against the men to send the cases to trial. Their lawyers say their clients are innocent and will be acquitted.
— Jan. 6, 2012 — New England Patriots offensive coordinator Bill O'Brien agrees to become new Penn State football coach.
— Jan. 13, 2012 — Erickson holds the last of three meetings in as many days with alumni as he tries to calm anger about how the university has dealt with the scandal. A crowd in New York heartily applauds one woman who asks, "How do you explain the lack of due process for Joe Paterno?"
— Jan. 14, 2012 — Paterno tells The Washington Post in his first interview since his ouster that he's "shocked and saddened" by the scandal and "didn't know which way to go" after McQueary went to him in 2002. Paterno says McQueary "didn't want to get specific" about details. Paterno says he was hesitant to make follow-up calls because he didn't want to be seen as trying to exert influence either for or against Sandusky.
— Jan. 19, 2012 — Penn State trustees try to counter the alumni uproar in interviews and tell the AP they decided to oust Paterno in part because he didn't do more to alert authorities in 2002. Trustees also say Paterno made statements after the scandal broke that they felt challenged trustees' authority.
— Jan. 21, 2012 — Paterno's doctors say his condition is "serious" after he experiences complications from lung cancer.
— Jan. 22, 2012 — Joe Paterno dies at age 85.
— June 11, 2012 — Sandusky's trial on child sex abuse charges begins. Testimony comes from eight of the 10 victims, in often-graphic form. Sandusky himself does not take the stand, but his wife does. Their adopted son, Matt, alleges that after hearing some of that testimony, he realized Sandusky had abused him, too.
— June 22, 2012 — Sandusky is convicted on 45 of 48 counts of child sex abuse.
— July 12, 2012 — Penn State's internal investigation concludes that the administrators who fielded a 2001 complaint about him created a dangerous situation by not reporting it. The report by Louis Freeh says Spanier, Paterno, Curley and Schultz, in order to avoid negative publicity for the school, "repeatedly concealed critical facts" and "failed to protect against a child sexual predator harming children for over a decade."
— July 22, 2012 — A statue of Joe Paterno that stood outside Beaver Stadium is removed hours before the NCAA imposes landmark sanctions on Penn State that include $60 million in fines, a four-year post-season ban on football, a crippling reduction in football scholarships and five years of probation.
— Aug. 3, 2012 — Paterno family calls the Freeh report "incomplete, rife with unsupported opinions and unquestionably one-sided," and tries to appeal the NCAA sanctions. NCAA says the sanctions are not subject to appeal.
— Aug. 22, 2012 — Spanier, in interviews with ABC and The New Yorker magazine, claims he was not aware that early complaints against Sandusky were sexual. His lawyers blast the Freeh report, as do lawyers for Curley and Schultz.
— Sept. 1, 2012 — Penn State's football team, sporting new uniforms, opens its first season since 1949 without Paterno on the sidelines. His widow, Sue, attends the game with her daughter and tells the AP that she "just wants us to win." Penn State loses to Ohio 24-14.
— Sept. 15, 2012 — Penn State wins first game of O'Brien era, 34-7 over Navy.
— Sept. 20, 2012 — Penn State hires Ken Feinberg, the lawyer who ran the Sept. 11 victim fund and other major victim compensation efforts, to help it settle personal injury claims filed by Sandusky's victims.
— Oct. 2, 2012 — McQueary files whistle-blower suit against Penn State, accusing it of defamation.
— Oct. 3, 2012 — Penn State's price tag to pay for legal fees, consultants and public relations firms to handle the fallout from the Sandusky scandal reaches nearly $20 million.
— Oct. 9, 2012 — Sandusky to be sentenced.
— January 2013 — Trial scheduled for Curley and Schultz.
(© Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
