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Former Penn State administrators get jail time in Sandusky scandal

HARRISBURG, Pa–Former Penn State President Graham Spanier and two other former administrators were sentenced Friday in Dauphin County court for failing to...
spanier-curley-schultz

HARRISBURG, Pa–Former Penn State President Graham Spanier and two other former administrators were sentenced Friday in Dauphin County court for failing to report allegations about Jerry Sandusky to authorities in a child sex case.

Spanier, 68, was sentenced to 4-to-12 months incarceration, with a guaranteed two months in prison. He was convicted on child endangerment charges at a jury trial in March.

Former athletic director Tim Curley, 63, received the strongest sentence. He will serve 7-to-23 months, with three months guaranteed in jail. Former vice president Gary Schultz, 67, was sentenced to 6-to-23 months with two months in jail.

Curley and Schultz each plead guilty to child endangerment.

All three will serve the remainders of their sentences, once released from prison, on house arrest. Following house arrest, each will undergo two years of probation.

Curley and Schultz have also been fined $5,000. Spanier was fined $7,500. All three must pay the cost of the prosecution court fees and undergo 200 hours community service.

“They ignored the opportunity to put an end to his crimes when they had a chance to do so,” Judge John Boccabella said at Friday’s sentencing hearing.

Prosecutors say the men failed to report an allegation about Sandusky sexually abusing a boy in a football team shower in 2001.

Curley and Schultz each wept as they apologized for their inactions. Spanier first apologized for the “pain, frustration, humiliation, and turmoil” placed on the Penn State University community.

“Most importantly,” Spanier then said, “I’m sorry to the men victimized by Jerry Sandusky. I deeply regret I did not intervene more forcibly.”

Boccabella also admonished former head football coach Joe Paterno, along with former team assistant coach Mike McQueary, his father John McQueary, and the McQueary family friend Dr. John Dranov for similarly not doing more to report Sandusky’s crimes.

Of Paterno, Boccabella said the former coach, “could have made that phone call without so much as getting his hands dirty. Why he didn’t is beyond me.”

Paterno was told of Sandusky’s transgressions in February 2001, after Mike McQueary spotted the former defensive coordinator sexually abusing a young boy in a school locker room shower. McQueary says he told Paterno the next day, who then met with his supervisors, Curley and Schultz.

Boccabella said he struggled with Spanier’s sentencing, ultimately deciding the former president was going off of information relayed to him by his employees. He thus received a lesser sentence.

Curley received the harshest punishment, Boccabella said, because his athletic department was most responsible for overseeing Sandusky. During Spanier’s trial, Curley claimed he could not remember multiple parts of what happened 17 years earlier.

“I find it really hard to believe that he doesn’t remember every detail of the most serious mistake he ever made,” Boccabella said.

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