Penn State says it is barring from campus a former football coach accused of sexually assaulting eight boys, and it also is paying legal costs for two school officials charged with perjury and failing to alert police about what they knew in the case. Â Read more after the jump.
Prosecutors say retired defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky sexually abused eight boys over 15 years.
Athletic director Tim Curley and school administrator Gary Schultz are accused of perjury and failing to alert police — as required by law — after a witness told them he saw Sandusky assaulting a boy in a practice facility shower.
University spokeswoman Lisa Powers says the allegations against Curley and Schultz concern how they fulfilled their responsibilities as employees, so Penn State is paying for their counsel.
Lawyers for all three men say they’re innocent.
“Despite a powerful eyewitness statement about the sexual assault of a child, this incident was not reported to any law enforcement or child protective agency, as required by Pennsylvania law,” state Attorney General Linda Kelly said.
There’s no indication that anyone at school attempted to find the boy or follow up with the witness, she said.
Pennsylvania’s Child Protective Services Law requires certain people associated with schools and other institutions to report suspected abuse immediately to the ChildLine service, which makes referrals to police, and to follow up within two days with written reports to the county children and youth services agency and to the state Department of Public Welfare.
The explosive sex abuse scandal and allegations of a cover-up rocked Happy Valley after Sandusky, once considered Joe Paterno’s heir apparent, was charged with sexual assault.
Among the allegations was that a graduate assistant saw Sandusky assault a boy in the shower at the team’s practice center in 2002.
Sandusky retired in 1999 but continued to use the school’s facilities for his work with The Second Mile, a foundation he established to help at-risk kids, where authorities say he encountered the boys. The case took on an added dimension Saturday when charges were announced against Curley and Schultz, the school’s vice president for finance and business.
“This is a case about a sexual predator who used his position within the university and community to repeatedly prey on young boys,” Kelly said Saturday in a statement.
