Two Penn State officials tied to the Jerry Sandusky scandal have pleaded guilty to charges of child endangerment on Monday. Former Penn State athletic director Tim Curley and senior vice president Gary Schultz entered their pleas to a judge with an agreement to potentially testify against former Penn State president Graham Spanier next week, according to a report from Penn Live.
Curley and Schultz face up to five years in prison and a maximum fine of $10,000 for their misdemeanor charge. The charges are tied to each man’s connection to the failure to report an incident witnessed by former Penn State assistant coach Mike McQueary (Sandusky sexually abusing a boy in the showers of the Penn State football building) and reported to former head football coach Joe Paterno. Paterno reported the information to Curley, his supervisor, and Curley and Schultz never reported the incident to the authorities.
Sentencing for Curley and Schultz is expected to take place within the next 90 days.
Sandusky, the former Penn state defensive coordinator, was found guilty on 45 of 48 charges related to sexually abuse of minors from 1994 through 2009. He is currently serving a sentence of up to 60 years, effectively a life sentence for the 73-year old. A request by Sandusky for a new trial has been denied. One of Sandusky’s sons, Jeffrey Sandusky, was recently arrested and charged with sexual assault of a minor.
The NCAA used The Freeh Report into the handling of the Sandusky scandal as the basis of a hefty set of sanctions slapping Penn State’s football program with a four-year postseason ban, vacated over 100 wins from the record books and a significant reduction in scholarships, and fined the university $60 million. The NCAA has since rescinded its sanction terms, first gradually and then entirely following positive reviews from an independent review from George Mitchell and mounting legal battles.
McQueary was awarded a $7.3 million payment from Penn State in a defamation lawsuit.
Paterno passed away in January 2012. His vacated wins from the NCAA sanctions have since been restored.