Star Witness Testifies at Hearing For Three Penn State Officials Snared in Sandusky Scandal
By Tony Romeo, Todd Quinones
HARRISBURG, Pa. (CBS) -- Former Penn State assistant football coach Mike McQueary was the leadoff witness this morning as a preliminary hearing began in the case of three former top Penn State administrators charged with covering up the Jerry Sandusky child sexual abuse scandal.
As he did at a proceeding in December 2011, McQueary testified that he witnessed a sexual incident in 2001 involving Sandusky and a boy in the Penn State football showers.
He testified that he immediately reached out to then head coach Joe Paterno, and also met with athletic director Tim Curley (right photo) and VP Gary Schultz (left photo) about the incident.
Schultz, Curley, and former Penn State president Graham Spanier (below) are charged with endangering the welfare of children and other offenses.
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Much of the hearing focused on Schultz and his handwritten notes and email exchanges involving all three defendants.
In those notes and emails dating back to 1998 and 2001, some allegations against Sandusky were discussed.
His former assistant testified Schultz had a confidential Sandusky file under lock and key and told her not to look at it.
It wouldn't be until 2009 that a formal criminal investigation would surface, an investigation that led to last year's conviction of the retired assistant football coach on 45 counts of child sexual abuse.
At one point McQueary testified that Coach Paterno warned him that the university would try to make him a scapegoat and, referring to Penn State's "Old Main" building as a euphemism for the school's administration, he testified that the late coach told McQueary not to trust Old Main and that Old Main had "screwed up."
Spanier is also charged with perjury.
All three men have maintained their innocence.
The hearing will resume on Tuesday.
