Key Players in the Penn State Scandal

Author:
SI Staff
Publish date:
Jul 12, 2012

Key Players in the Penn State Scandal

Jerry Sandusky

Role: Former assistant football coach and founder of The Second Mile charity for children, convicted of molesting 10 boys over a 15-year period. Background: Arrested in November after a long investigation by a statewide grand jury. He had been a successful defensive coach for the Nittany Lions for 30 years, and prosecutors say he used his fame in the community to attract victims. Charges: Involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, indecent assault of a young child, unlawful contact with minors, corruption of minors, endangering the welfare of children. Status: Sandusky was found guilty of 45 counts and he is in jail, awaiting sentencing. He faces the possibility of life in prison.

Dottie Sandusky

Role: Married to Jerry Sandusky. Background: Dottie Sandusky has stood by her husband, posting his bail, accompanying him to court proceedings and issuing a statement in December that proclaimed his innocence and said accusers were making up stories. She wasn't charged. She testified June 19 on her husband's behalf.

Graham Spanier

Role: Penn State's longtime president, he was forced out by university trustees after Sandusky's arrest in November but remains a tenured faculty member. Background: An investigation led by ex-FBI director Louis Freeh concluded that Spanier failed in his duties as president by not informing the board of trustees about the allegations against Sandusky or about the subsequent grand jury investigation. Spanier told investigators he wasn't notified of any criminal behavior by Sandusky during his 16 years as president. He has not been charged with any crime.

Louis Freeh

Role: Leader of an investigative team tasked with determining how the abuse occurred and recommending changes, as well as reviewing Penn State's handling of sex crimes and misconduct. Background: Freeh, a former federal judge who spent eight years as director of the FBI, was hired by Penn State's board of trustees in June. His firm produced a 267-page report that said Spanier, longtime football coach Joe Paterno, athletic director Tim Curley and vice president Gary Schultz "repeatedly concealed critical facts relating to Sandusky's child abuse."

Tim Curley

Role: Penn State athletic director, on leave while he fights criminal charges for actions related to the Sandusky scandal. Background: Curley fielded a complaint about Sandusky in a team shower with a boy in early 2001, and told a grand jury he instructed Sandusky not to be inside Penn State athletic facilities with any young people. Charges: Failure to properly report suspected child abuse and perjury for lying to the grand jury. He wasn't on trial with Sandusky, denies the allegations and is seeking to have the charges dismissed. Freeh's report concluded that Curley and others at Penn State concealed child sex abuse allegations against Sandusky.

Gary Schultz

Role: Penn State vice president for business and finance, now retired. Background: Schultz told the grand jury that head coach Joe Paterno and assistant Mike McQueary reported the 2001 shower incident "in a very general way" but did not provide details. Charges: Failure to properly report suspected child abuse and perjury for lying to the grand jury. He wasn't on trial with Sandusky, denies the allegations and is seeking to have the charges dismissed. Freeh's report said Schultz was among the Penn State officials who hid child sex abuse allegations against Sandusky.

Mike McQueary

Role: Assistant Penn State football coach. Was a graduate assistant in 2001, when he says he witnessed Jerry Sandusky and a boy naked together in a team shower. McQueary took his complaint to Paterno, who alerted university administrators. Background: McQueary testified in court June 12 that he had "no doubt" Sandusky was having intercourse with the boy.

Joe Paterno

Role: The longtime football coach was told by McQueary in 2001 that he saw Sandusky and Victim No. 2 in a shower on the Penn State campus and, in turn, told Curley and Schultz. Background: The head coach at Penn State from 1966 through 2011, and major college football's winningest, he offered to resign at the end of the 2011 season amid the uproar after Sandusky's arrest Nov. 6. The Penn State Board of Trustees, however, ousted him for what was called his "failure of leadership" surrounding allegations about Sandusky. He died of lung cancer Jan. 22. Freeh said Paterno "was an integral part of this active decision to conceal" the abuse and that his firing was justified. Paterno's family responded that he didn't cover anything up and didn't know Sandusky was a pedophile.

Sue Paterno

Role: Married to Joe Paterno for almost 50 years, she raised five children with him and passionately defended her husband during the scandal and after he died. She was among the Sandusky defense team's potential trial witnesses but wasn't called to the stand.

Tom Corbett

Role: Now the governor of Pennsylvania, he was attorney general when the investigation into Sandusky was launched by state prosecutors. Background: Corbett is an ex-officio member of the Penn State Board of Trustees, although he did not actively participate until after Sandusky was charged in December.

Linda Kelly

Role: Pennsylvania attorney general, whose office prosecuted Sandusky. Background: A career prosecutor in the Pittsburgh area, Kelly inherited the Sandusky probe from Corbett when she was confirmed as his temporary successor as attorney general. She leaves office in January.

Jack Raykovitz

Role: Former CEO of The Second Mile, the charity Jerry Sandusky founded. Background: Raykovitz led the charity for almost 30 years and was a longtime friend of Sandusky's. Raykovitz testified before the grand jury that recommended indicting Sandusky on child abuse charges. He resigned from The Second Mile soon after the scandal broke, and board members later complained that Raykovitz hadn't told them enough about earlier allegations against Sandusky.