STATE COLLEGE - Two top Penn State officials charged with covering up allegations of an explosive child-sex abuse scandal related to a former defensive coordinator stepped down late Sunday after an emergency meeting of the university's Board of Trustees.
Penn State Athletic Director Tim Curley requested to be placed on administrative leave so he could devote the time needed to defend himself against perjury and other charges, university President Graham Spanier said. Gary Schultz, vice president for finance and business, will step down and go back into retirement, Spanier said. He declined to comment to reporters after the meeting.
Resignations of famed football coach Joe Paterno and Spanier weren't discussed at the meeting, which was arranged Sunday and lasted two hours, university spokesman Bill Mahon said.
Curley and Schultz were charged Saturday after a grand jury investigation of former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky. He's been charged with sexually abusing eight boys over 15 years. Lawyers for all three men have said they're innocent.
Sandusky, once considered Paterno's heir apparent, retired in 1999 but continued to use the school's facilities for his work with The Second Mile, a foundation he established to help at-risk kids. Curley and Schultz were accused of failing to alert police - as required by state law - of their investigation of the allegations.
"This is a case about a sexual predator who used his position within the university and community to repeatedly prey on young boys," state Attorney General Linda Kelly said Saturday.
Paterno, who last week became the coach with the most wins in Division I football history, wasn't charged, and the grand jury report didn't appear to implicate him in wrongdoing.
In a statement issued Sunday night, Paterno said he was shocked, saddened and surprised as everyone else to hear of the charges.
"If this is true we were all fooled, along with scores of professionals trained in such things, and we grieve for the victims and their families. They are in our prayers," Paterno said in a statement issued by his son, Scott.
Under Paterno's four-decades-and-counting stewardship, the Nittany Lions became a bedrock in the college game, and fans packed the stadium in State College, a campus town routinely ranked among America's best places to live and nicknamed Happy Valley.
Paterno's teams were revered both for winning games - including two national championships - and largely steering clear of trouble. Sandusky, whose defenses were usually anchored by tough-guy linebackers - hence the moniker "Linebacker U" - spent three decades at the school. The charges against him cover the period from 1994 to 2009.
Sandusky, 67, was arrested Saturday and released on $100,000 bail after being arraigned on 40 criminal counts. Curley, 57, and Schultz, 62, were expected to turn themselves in on Monday in Harrisburg.
Curley was named athletic director on Dec. 30, 1993. Senior Associate Athletic Director Mark Sherburne will serve as interim athletic director until Curley's legal situation is resolved, board Chairman Steve Garban said.
Schultz served as senior vice president and treasurer from 1993 to 2009. He returned to the job this year to fill in until a new person could be found.
The allegations against Sandusky, who started The Second Mile in 1977, range from sexual advances to touching to oral and anal sex. The young men testified before a state grand jury that they were in their early teens when some of the abuse occurred; there is evidence even younger children may have been victimized. Sandusky's attorney Joe Amendola said his client has been aware of the accusations for about three years and has maintained his innocence.
Paterno is not implicated in the case.
"Joe Paterno was a witness who cooperated and testified before the grand jury," said Nils Frederiksen, a spokesman for the state attorney general's office. "He's not a suspect."
Frederiksen called questions about whether Paterno might testify premature and speculation.
"That's putting the cart way ahead of the horse," he said. "We're certainly not going to be discussing the lineup of potential witnesses."
The grand jury report that lays out the accusations against the men cites the state's Child Protective Services Law, which requires immediate reporting by doctors, nurses, school administrators, teachers, day care workers, police and others.
Penn State spokesman Bill Mahon released a statement Sunday saying that Sandusky has been banned from the campus in the wake of the allegations.
Neither Schultz nor Curley appear to have had direct contact with the boys Sandusky is accused of abusing, including the one involved in the eyewitness account prosecutors say they were given. Prosecutors say Sandusky encountered victims through The Second Mile, a charity he founded for at-risk children.
The two school administrators fielded the complaint from an unnamed graduate assistant, and from Paterno. The Patriot-News of Harrisburg has identified the graduate assistant as Mike McQueary, now the team's wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator.
McQueary was out of town on a recruiting trip Sunday, according to his father, John McQueary, who declined to comment about the case or say whether they are the two named in the grand jury report.
The law "applies only to children under the care and supervision of the organization for which he works, and that's Penn State, it's not The Second Mile," Farrell said of his client. "This child, from what we know, was a Second Mile child."
Messages left later Sunday seeking comment from Frederiksen with the attorney general's office, and from Curley's lawyer, Caroline Roberto, were not immediately returned. Farrell said it was accurate to say the allegations against Curley are legally flawed in the same manner.
Farrell said he plans to seek dismissal at the earliest opportunity. Both Schultz and Curley are scheduled to turn themselves in at a district judge's office in Harrisburg on Monday.
"Now, tomorrow is probably not the appropriate time," Farrell said. "We'll bring every legal challenge that is appropriate, and I think quite a few are appropriate."
As a summary offense, failure to report suspected child abuse carries up to three months in jail and a $200 fine.
"As far as my research shows, there has never been a reported criminal decision under this statute, and the civil decisions go our way," he said.
Curley and Schultz met with the graduate assistant about a week and a half after the alleged attack, Pennsylvania Attorney General Linda Kelly said Saturday. There is no indication that anyone at school attempted to find the boy or follow up with the witness, she said.
"Despite a powerful eyewitness statement about the sexual assault of a child, this incident was not reported to any law enforcement or child protective agency, as required by Pennsylvania law," Kelly said.
The allegations mirror the sexual abuse scandal that has rocked the Catholic church, albeit on a smaller and narrower scale. As in the church's case, authorities say high-ranking figures were given details about instances of sex abuse and failed to share them with law enforcement or child-welfare agencies.
Curley and Schultz also are accused of perjury for their testimony to the grand jury that issued a 23-page report on the matter Friday, the day before state prosecutors charged them. Sandusky was arrested Saturday and charged with 40 criminal counts.
Curley denied that the assistant had reported anything of a sexual nature, calling it "merely 'horsing around,'" the grand jury report said. But he also testified that he barred Sandusky from bringing children onto campus and that he advised Spanier of the matter.
The grand jury said Curley was lying, Kelly said, adding that it also deemed portions of Schultz's testimony not to be credible.
Schultz told the jurors he also knew of a 1998 investigation involving sexually inappropriate behavior by Sandusky with a boy in the showers the football team used.
According to the Patriot-News, the 1998 report was labeled "unfounded" because former Centre County District Attorney Ray Gricar decided not to press charges and would have been expunged. State law requires Children and Youth Services to delete all notes after one year and four months.
Gricar mysteriously disappeared in 2005 and was declared dead earlier this year.
Despite his job overseeing campus police, Schultz never reported the 2002 allegations to any authorities, "never sought or received a police report on the 1998 incident and never attempted to learn the identity of the child in the shower in 2002," the jurors wrote. "No one from the university did so."
Farrell said Schultz "should have been required only to report it to his supervisor, which he did."
Schultz reports to Spanier, who testified before the grand jury that Schultz and Curley came to him with a report that a staff member was uncomfortable because he'd seen Sandusky "horsing around" with a boy. Spanier was not charged.
About the perjury charge, Farrell said: "We're going to have a lot of issues with that, both factual and legal. I think there's a very strong defense here."
The university is paying legal costs for Curley and Schultz because the allegations against them concern how they fulfilled their responsibilities as employees, spokeswoman Lisa Powers said.
