It was late at night on Feb. 27, 2001, and Penn State's then-president, Graham Spanier, one of academia's most prominent administrators, typed a brief email to two other top administrators as they debated how to respond to a thorny situation.
He was, he wrote, supportive of the athletic director's proposed approach.
''The only downside for us is if the message isn't 'heard' and acted upon, and we then become vulnerable for not having reported it,'' Spanier wrote.
The question of what exact situation the three men were discussing will go before a judge Monday to determine whether Spanier, retired university vice president Gary Schultz and then-athletic director Tim Curley must face trial on charges they covered up an allegation that Jerry Sandusky was sexually preying on boys.
The men say they are innocent and were never aware that an allegation at the time involved anything of a sexual nature. Rather, they say, they had believed that Sandusky, a former top assistant coach on Penn State's heralded football team, and the boy known in court papers as Victim 2 were engaged in nothing more than horseplay in a university locker room shower earlier that month.
Instead of reporting it to police, Sandusky was told not to bring boys onto the campus anymore, according to a grand jury report released Nov. 1 that recommended charges against the men. At the time, nobody sought to learn the identity of the boy. Sandusky is now serving a 30- to 60-year prison sentence after being convicted last year of sexually abusing 10 boys. The conviction included molesting Victim 5 in those showers a mere six months later, sexually abusing Victim 3 around the same period and molesting Victims 1 and 9 in later years.
The case will go in front of District Judge William Wenner, a former Dauphin County detective, and the preliminary hearing is expected to last a day or two. In recent years as a district judge, Wenner has carved out a niche in handling many of the biggest grand jury cases developed by the state attorney general's office.
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He was, he wrote, supportive of the athletic director's proposed approach.
''The only downside for us is if the message isn't 'heard' and acted upon, and we then become vulnerable for not having reported it,'' Spanier wrote.
The question of what exact situation the three men were discussing will go before a judge Monday to determine whether Spanier, retired university vice president Gary Schultz and then-athletic director Tim Curley must face trial on charges they covered up an allegation that Jerry Sandusky was sexually preying on boys.
The men say they are innocent and were never aware that an allegation at the time involved anything of a sexual nature. Rather, they say, they had believed that Sandusky, a former top assistant coach on Penn State's heralded football team, and the boy known in court papers as Victim 2 were engaged in nothing more than horseplay in a university locker room shower earlier that month.
Instead of reporting it to police, Sandusky was told not to bring boys onto the campus anymore, according to a grand jury report released Nov. 1 that recommended charges against the men. At the time, nobody sought to learn the identity of the boy. Sandusky is now serving a 30- to 60-year prison sentence after being convicted last year of sexually abusing 10 boys. The conviction included molesting Victim 5 in those showers a mere six months later, sexually abusing Victim 3 around the same period and molesting Victims 1 and 9 in later years.
The case will go in front of District Judge William Wenner, a former Dauphin County detective, and the preliminary hearing is expected to last a day or two. In recent years as a district judge, Wenner has carved out a niche in handling many of the biggest grand jury cases developed by the state attorney general's office.
Go Check out all of our social media
– You can now follow me (Andy) on my Twitter account is at https://twitter.com/AR_Official_94
_ You can like me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/AR_Official/244148072390274
- The Best Pro Wrestling, MMA & Sports Talk- Live Radio Show