Three Penn State ex-officials must stand trial
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Penn State’s ex-president and two former top school administrators were ordered Tuesday to stand trial on charges accusing them of a cover-up in the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal.
Prosecutors showed enough evidence during a two-day preliminary hearing to warrant a full criminal court trial for ex-President Graham Spanier, former vice president Gary Schultz and ex-athletic director Tim Curley, Judge William Wenner concluded.
Wenner called it “a tragic day for Penn State University.”
State prosecutors allege that the three men failed to tell police about sexual abuse allegations involving Sandusky and then tried to cover up what they knew about it.
The men say they are innocent and were not aware of the allegation against Sandusky in 2001. They say they had believed that Sandusky and the boy were engaged in nothing more than horseplay in a university locker room shower.
Sandusky was convicted last year of 45 counts of child sexual abuse, but maintains his innocence and is appealing a 30- to 60-year state prison term.