The
Penn State child sex abuse scandal concerned allegations and subsequent convictions of
child sexual abuse committed by
Jerry Sandusky, an assistant coach for the
Penn State Nittany Lions football team, over a period of at least fifteen years. The scandal began to emerge publicly in
March 2011 and broke in early November 2011 when Sandusky was
indicted on 52 counts of
child molestation, stemming from incidents that occurred between 1994 and 2009.
[1] Sandusky was ultimately convicted on 45 counts of child sexual abuse on June 22, 2012,
[2] and was sentenced to a minimum of 30 years and a maximum of 60 years in prison.
[3]
Additionally, three Penn State officials – school president
Graham Spanier, vice president Gary Schultz and athletic director
Tim Curley – were charged with
perjury,
obstruction of justice, failure to report suspected child abuse, and related charges.
[4] The
Penn State Board of Trustees commissioned an independent investigation by former
FBI Director Louis Freeh, whose report stated that Penn State's longtime head football coach
Joe Paterno, along with Spanier, Curley and Schultz, had known about allegations of child abuse by Sandusky as early as 1998, had shown "total and consistent disregard...for the safety and welfare of Sandusky's child victims", and "empowered" Sandusky to continue his acts of abuse by failing to disclose them.
[5]: 14
[6][7] Shortly after the scandal broke, Spanier resigned. The Board of Trustees terminated the contracts of Paterno and Curley.
As a result of the scandal, the
National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) imposed sanctions on the Penn State football program: a $60 million
fine, a four-year postseason ban, scholarship reductions, and a vacation of all victories from 1998 to 2011.
[8] These sanctions were considered to be among the most severe ever imposed on an NCAA member school. NCAA President
Mark Emmert stated that the sanctions were levied "not to be just punitive, but to make sure the university establishes an athletic culture and daily mindset in which football will never again be placed ahead of educating, nurturing and protecting young people."
[9][10] The
Big Ten Conference subsequently imposed an additional $13 million fine.
[11]
The Paterno family retained former
Attorney General Richard Thornburgh to conduct a review of the Freeh report, which concluded that the report constituted a "rush to injustice" that could not be relied upon
[12][13] and that Freeh's evidence fell "far short" of showing that Joe Paterno attempted to conceal the scandal, but rather that "the contrary is true".
[13] In January 2013,
state senator Jake Corman and state treasurer
Rob McCord sued the NCAA, seeking to overturn the Penn State sanctions on the basis that Freeh had been actively collaborating with the organization and that
due process had not been followed. In November 2014, Corman released emails showing "regular and substantive" contact between Freeh's investigators and the NCAA, suggesting that Freeh's conclusions were orchestrated.
[14] As part of a settlement, the NCAA restored the 111 wins to Paterno's record on January 16, 2015.
[15][10]
On March 25, 2017, Curley, Schultz, and Spanier pleaded or were found guilty of
misdemeanor charges of
child endangerment.
[16] All
conspiracy charges against Curley and Schultz were dropped, and Spanier was
acquitted of conspiracy, the charges central to Louis Freeh's allegation of a cover-up.
[17][18] In June 2017, all three were sentenced to jail terms, fines, and
probation for the misdemeanors.
[19] Spanier was sentenced to four to twelve months in jail, a $7,500 fine, and two years of probation.
[20] Spanier's misdemeanor conviction was overturned by the federal district court, but reinstated by the court of appeals in December 2020.
[21][22]
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