The Penn State child sex abuse scandal concerned allegations and subsequent convictions of child sexual abuse committed by Jerry Sandusky , an assistant coach for the Penn State Nittany Lions football team, over a period of at least fifteen years. The scandal began to emerge publicly in March and broke in early November when Sandusky was indicted on 52 counts of child molestation , stemming from incidents that occurred between and All were over the age of 18 by the time they testified.
Six were over Additionally, three Penn State officials, school president Graham Spanier , vice president Gary Schultz, and athletic director Tim Curley , were charged with perjury , obstruction of justice , failure to report suspected child abuse, and related charges. The board of trustees terminated the contracts of Paterno and Curley. NCAA President Mark Emmert stated that the sanctions were levied "not to be just punitive, but to make sure the university establishes an athletic culture and daily mindset in which football will never again be placed ahead of educating, nurturing and protecting young people.
The Paterno family retained former Attorney General Richard Thornburgh to conduct a review of the Freeh report, which concluded that the report constituted a "rush to injustice" that could not be relied upon [ 12 ] [ 13 ] and that Freeh's evidence fell "far short" of showing that Joe Paterno attempted to conceal the scandal, but rather that "the contrary is true".
In November , Corman released emails showing "regular and substantive" contact between Freeh's investigators and the NCAA, suggesting that Freeh's conclusions were orchestrated. On March 25, , Curley, Schultz, and Spanier pleaded or were found guilty of misdemeanor charges of child endangerment.
Jerry Sandusky was an assistant coach for the Penn State Nittany Lions football team from to In Pennsylvania, a grand jury only recommends criminal charges.
