BELLEFONTE, Pa. -- Former Penn State player and assistant coach Mike McQueary may have hinted to group of equipment managers and football operations staffers what he witnessed from Jerry Sandusky, a few years following the incident.
According to Kirk Diehl, former Penn State facilities coordinator and current director of football operations, he, along with McQueary, and other staffers Brad Caldwell and Tom Venturino had watched a video "in the mid-2000's" about what to do when seeing potential NCAA violations.
Diehl testified that McQueary said "he saw something very devastating and went right to Coach (Joe) Paterno with it."
McQueary would not go into any details, however, despite getting pressed by his coaching friends, said former head equipment manager Brad Caldwell.
"We probed him: 'What're you talking about?' He wouldn't tell us any details," Caldwell remembered. "'What do you mean Mike? What're you talking about?' He didn't say anything. I thank him to this day."
Diehl remembered saying at the time, "I would go right to Joe (Paterno), because that's what he told us to do. He charged us with (reporting)."
McQueary sued Penn State in 2012, claiming the school blacklisted him after he came forward to testify about seeing Sandusky sexually abusing a young boy in a Penn State locker room shower. His testimony, given to a grand jury in early 2011, implicated former top school administrators Tim Curley and Gary Schultz, who were eventually charged with perjury, obstruction, failure to report and child endangerment crimes in November 2011.
Former Penn State President Graham Spanier would also be charged with the same crimes in 2012. The trio recently had their perjury and obstruction charges dropped by a Pennsylvania Superior Court under the basis of ineffective counsel.
McQueary believes the school made him out to be a liar in the days and months after the grand jury presentment was released on November 5, 2011. McQueary was not mentioned by name in the presentment; only listed as the "graduate assistant" who reported Sandusky's crimes. However, media reports soon outed McQueary.
McQueary is seeking $4 million in damages. James Stavros, a forensic accountant who testified Tuesday morning, estimates that is the average amount of money McQueary will stand to lose over the course of his career, assuming he were to have remained as a college football assistant coach.
Penn State maintains McQueary was morally obligated to do more to stop Jerry Sandusky or report the incident to police in 2001. School counsel also says his job termination in 2012 came as a result of a coaching change, and then-head coach Bill O'Brien deciding not to retain McQueary as a coach. Penn State says McQueary failed to maintain a network which would have helped him get hired elsewhere.
O'Brien is expected to testify on Wednesday.
Judge Thomas Gavin told jurors after McQueary's legal team rested its case Tuesday morning to expect Wednesday as the last day of witness testimony. Closing arguments will begin Thursday with the expectation that the jury will begin deliberations Thursday afternoon.