STATE COLLEGE, Pennsylvania – Penn State University has contacted officials at the Vatican to see if the Pope would decree that the school is a Catholic institution.
Athletic director Tim Curley and another university official were charged Saturday with perjury related to a child sexual abuse investigation of longtime Nittany Lions assistant coach Jerry Sandusky, who served on head football coach Joe Paterno’s staff.
Former PSU defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky greets the school's Nittany Lion statue (PHOTO: Jimmy Peppers)
The Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office said Curley, 57, and Gary Schultz, 62, Penn State’s senior vice president for finance and business, also were charged with failure to report, a summary offense.
The charges against Curley and Schultz, both of Boalsburg, Pa., stem from a three-year investigation of Sandusky, 67, who spent 32 years on Paterno’s staff, 23 as defensive coordinator, before retiring after the 1999 season. Sandusky was arraigned Saturday in State College on 40 counts related to the sexual abuse case against him, and released on $100,000 bail.
“Come on,” said PSU president Grant Sprainer. “With all the shit going down here, the only thing missing from our campus is a crucifix.”
In a four-page release, the Attorney General’s Office said Paterno was informed by a graduate-assistant football coach in March 2002 that he had seen Sandusky involved in sexual activity with a boy in the showers of the Lasch Football Complex, where Sandusky maintained an office after his retirement.
One accuser, now 27, testified that Sandusky initiated contact with a “soap battle” in the shower that led to multiple instances of involuntary sexual intercourse and indecent assault at Sandusky’s hands, a grand jury report said.
He said he traveled to charity functions and Penn State games with Sandusky, even being listed as a member of the Sandusky family party for the 1998 Outback Bowl and 1999 Alamo Bowl. But when the boy resisted his advances, Sandusky threatened to send him home from the Alamo Bowl, the report said.
“I suppose they’re gonna say we didn’t cover this sex stuff up long enough to qualify as truly ‘Catholic,’” lamented Sprainer. “I guess nobody can compete with Rome. But we will do better the next time around, I can assure you.”