The cast of characters in the Penn State scandal
Oct 10, 2012, 6:58 AM
(AP) – The main players in the Penn State scandal:
JERRY SANDUSKY
Role: Former assistant football coach and founder of The Second Mile charity for children, convicted of molesting 10 boys over a 15-year period.
Background: Arrested in November after a long investigation by a statewide grand jury. He had been a successful defensive coach for the Nittany Lions for 30 years, and prosecutors say he used his fame in the community and his charity to attract victims.
Charges: Involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, indecent assault of a young child, unlawful contact with minors, corruption of minors, endangering the welfare of children.
Status: Sandusky was sentenced Tuesday to 30 to 60 years in prison. He will likely die in prison, according to the judge.
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DOTTIE SANDUSKY
Role: Married to Jerry Sandusky.
Background: Dottie Sandusky has stood by her husband, posting his bail when he was released before trial, accompanying him to court proceedings and issuing a statement in December that proclaimed his innocence and said accusers were making up stories. She wasn’t charged and testified at his trial that she never saw him doing anything inappropriate with boys he brought to their home.
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GRAHAM SPANIER
Role: Penn State’s longtime president, he was forced out by university trustees after Sandusky’s arrest in November but remains a tenured faculty member.
Background: An investigation led by ex-FBI director Louis Freeh concluded that Spanier failed in his duties as president by not informing the board of trustees about the allegations against Sandusky or about the subsequent grand jury investigation. Spanier told investigators he wasn’t notified of any criminal behavior by Sandusky during his 16 years as president. He has not been charged with any crime but is accused in a whistle-blower lawsuit against the university of making statements that harmed the reputation of Mike McQueary. McQueary, since fired by the university, was an assistant who told longtime coach Joe Paterno he saw Sandusky with a boy in a team shower in 2001, and who now says Spanier and other administrators have made him a scapegoat.
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LOUIS FREEH
Role: Leader of an investigative team tasked with determining how the abuse occurred and recommending changes, as well as reviewing Penn State’s handling of sex crimes and misconduct accusations.
Background: Freeh, a former federal judge who spent eight years as director of the FBI, was hired by Penn State’s board of trustees in June. His firm produced a 267-page report that said Spanier, Paterno, Athletic Director Tim Curley and Vice President Gary Schultz “repeatedly concealed critical facts relating to Sandusky’s child abuse.”
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TIM CURLEY
Role: Penn State athletic director, on leave while he fights criminal charges for actions related to the Sandusky scandal.
Background: Curley fielded McQueary’s complaint about Sandusky in a team shower with a boy in early 2001, and told a grand jury he instructed Sandusky not to be inside Penn State athletic facilities with any young people.
Charges: Failure to properly report suspected child abuse and perjury for lying to the grand jury. He wasn’t on trial with Sandusky, denies the allegations and unsuccessfully sought to have the perjury charge dismissed. A judge is expected to rule on the failure to report charge before Curley stands trial in January along with Schultz. Freeh’s report concluded that Curley and others at Penn State concealed child sex abuse allegations against Sandusky.
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GARY SCHULTZ
Role: Penn State vice president for business and finance, now retired.
Background: Schultz told the grand jury that Paterno and McQueary reported the 2001 shower incident “in a very general way” but did not provide details.
Charges: Failure to properly report suspected child abuse and perjury for lying to the grand jury. He wasn’t on trial with Sandusky, denies the allegations and failed to have the perjury charge dismissed. A judge is expected to rule on a request to dismiss the failure to report charge before Schultz stands trial in January along with Curley. Freeh’s report said Schultz was among the Penn State officials who hid child sex abuse allegations against Sandusky.
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MIKE MCQUEARY
Role: Since-fired assistant Penn State football coach. Was a graduate assistant in 2001, when he says he witnessed Sandusky pressing himself against a boy in a team shower. McQueary took his complaint to Paterno, who alerted university administrators.
Background: McQueary testified at Sandusky’s trial that he had “no doubt” Sandusky was having intercourse with the boy. He has since filed a whistle-blower lawsuit against the university, claiming that he lost his $140,000-a-year job, that he was defamed, that his comments were misrepresented by Spanier and other administrators, and that he was made a scapegoat for the scandal and the administration’s alleged failure to act on his initial complaint to Paterno.
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JOE PATERNO
Role: The longtime football coach was told by McQueary in 2001 that he saw Sandusky and a boy in a shower on campus and, in turn, told Curley and Schultz.
Background: The head coach at Penn State from 1966 through 2011, and major college football’s winningest when he retired, Paterno offered to resign at the end of the 2011 season amid the uproar after Sandusky’s arrest Nov. 6. The Penn State Board of Trustees, however, ousted him for what was called his “failure of leadership” surrounding allegations about Sandusky. He died of lung cancer Jan. 22. Freeh said that Paterno “was an integral part of this active decision to conceal” the abuse and that his firing was justified. The NCAA has since vacated 111 of Paterno’s 409 career wins, as part of a package of scandal-related sanctions against the football team and the university. Paterno’s family continues to maintain that he didn’t cover up anything and didn’t know Sandusky was a pedophile.
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SUE PATERNO
Role: Married to Joe Paterno for almost 50 years, she raised five children with him and has continued to passionately defend her husband during the scandal and after he died. She was among the Sandusky defense team’s potential trial witnesses but wasn’t called to the stand. She has continued her philanthropic work at the university, appearing last month at the dedication of a $6.5 million campus Catholic center named for her.
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TOM CORBETT
Role: Now the governor of Pennsylvania, he was attorney general when the investigation into Sandusky was launched by state prosecutors.
Background: Corbett is an ex-officio member of the Penn State Board of Trustees, although he did not actively participate until after Sandusky was charged in December.
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LINDA KELLY
Role: Pennsylvania attorney general, whose office prosecuted Sandusky.
Background: A career prosecutor formerly with the U.S. attorney’s office in Pittsburgh, Kelly inherited the Sandusky probe from Corbett when she was confirmed as his temporary successor as attorney general. She leaves office in January.
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JACK RAYKOVITZ
Role: Former CEO of The Second Mile, the charity Jerry Sandusky founded.
Background: Raykovitz led the charity for almost 30 years and was a longtime friend of Sandusky’s. Raykovitz testified before the grand jury that recommended indicting Sandusky on child abuse charges. He resigned from The Second Mile soon after the scandal broke, and board members later complained that Raykovitz hadn’t told them enough about earlier allegations against Sandusky. The charity’s internal investigation by former Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham ended in May without issuing a report on its findings.
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