HARRISBURG, Pa. — A federal appeals court is reinstating former Penn State President Graham Spanier’s conviction for child endangerment over his handling of a report that former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky sexually abused a child.
The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Tuesday that a lower-court judge had improperly vacated Spanier’s misdemeanor conviction for the 2001 incident.
The lower court judge vacated that conviction in 2019.
Spanier’s defense attorney declined comment.
Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro says in a release that Spanier “turned a blind eye to child abuse by not reporting his knowledge of Jerry Sandusky’s assaults to law enforcement.”
Spanier was forced out as university president shortly after Sandusky was arrested in 2011 on child molestation charges.
