The criminal charges against a former Penn State coach and two top administrators are not about football or a university, Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner Frank Noonan said Monday.

Rather, he said, the case is about alleged child sex abuse "and a culture that did nothing to stop it or prevent it from happening to others."

In a nearly half-hour press conference in Harrisburg, Noonan and state Attorney General Linda Kelly detailed the charges against the former football coach, Jerry Sandusky, and the administrators: Tim Curley and Gary Schultz. (UPDATE @ 8:11 p.m. Nov. 7: WGAL TV has posted complete video from the press conference. It's available here.)

Both Curley and Schultz have stepped away from their positions -- as athletic director and as senior vice president, respectively -- while they defend themselves against perjury and failure-to-report charges, the university announced early Monday. They were due to be arraigned Monday afternoon in Dauphin County.

Sandusky, who retired in 1999, was arraigned Saturday in Centre County. Facing 40 criminal counts, he could face a preliminary hearing as soon as Wednesday.

According to a grand-jury report released last week, Sandusky is accused of victimizing eight boys over more than a decade. At the press conference Monday, Kelly said it's not beyond the realm of possibility that more victims may exist.

She said investigators have identified six of the eight alleged victims. One unidentified boy -- about 10 years old at the time -- was sexually assaulted by Sandusky in a football shower facility in March 2002, according to a witness report cited by prosecutors.

Kelly, speaking before live television cameras Monday, urged that alleged victim to step forward and call investigators at (814) 863-1053 or state police at (814) 470-2238. She said Curley and Schultz, told of the alleged assault, made no effort to identify the boy or to report the incident properly.

She underscored that the investigation is active and ongoing.

"The sexual abuse of a child is a horrific offense," Kelly said. Noonan soon elaborated, saying that "the children are scarred for life. They have a very difficult time adjusting ... ."

Many victims of child sex abuse don't reach out to authorities until years after the fact, Noonan said.

"Who do they go to?" he said. "(And) who's going to believe them when they're talking about an icon in the area? It's very difficult."

Noonan spoke specifically about the March 2002 report. At the time, according to grand-jury findings, a then-graduate assistant who saw the alleged assault reported it Coach Joe Paterno the next day. Paterno reportedly passed along the information to Schultz and Curley.

"But nothing happened, and nothing stopped," Noonan said. He called it "very unusual" that such an eyewitness account would not be reported to police.

"I don't think I've ever seen something like that before," Noonan said.

Noonan also referred to findings that, in a 1998 investigation by Penn State police, Sandusky acknowledged inappropriate contact in a shower room. No action was taken to stop him at that point, either, Noonan said.

Among other statements Monday by Noonan and Kelly:

• Asked whether university President Graham Spanier and Paterno have been cleared in prosecutors' investigation, Kelly said Paterno has been interviewed by investigators and testified before the grand jury. She said he has been cooperative with investigators and is not regarded as a target. "We believe that, under (state statute), he had an obligation to report (the 2002 incident) to school administrators, and he did that."

Kelly would not comment on whether Paterno -- or others -- had a moral or ethical duty to take further action, saying that her focus is on matters of legal guilt, not morality.

• A Clinton County school district -- Keystone Central -- promptly relayed to authorities allegations of misconduct by Sandusky there, Kelly said. Had it not been for that action, she said, "we may not be here today."

Also Monday, the Harrisburg Patriot-News reported that Gov. Tom Corbett will attend a Penn State Board of Trustees meeting that's scheduled for Friday in State College. Corbett, himself a former attorney general, is a Penn State board member by virtue of his role as governor. Governors, however, very rarely attend the university's board meetings.

His office did not immediately respond to a StateCollege.com inquiry about whether Corbett participated in a university board meeting Sunday night. Trustees met in executive session in Old Main, on the University Park campus. About half the members participated via telephone, a university spokesman said.

All StateCollege.com coverage of this ongoing news is clustered on this page.

Related coverage

• StateCollege.com's complete ongoing coverage of the Penn State charges
  

• Curley, Schultz Step Aside; Penn State Announces Safety Steps (Nov. 7, 2011)

• Paterno: Sandusky Charges, If True, 'Are Very Shocking'; 'Let's Be Fair' (Nov. 6, 2011)

• Attorney General Kelly: Sandusky a Sexual Predator, Preyed Repeatedly on Young Boys (Nov. 6, 2011)

• Spanier: Curley, Schultz 'Operate at the Highest Levels of Honesty' (Nov. 5, 2011)

• AP: Penn State's Curley, Schultz Also Charged as Sandusky Case Emerges (Nov. 5, 2011)

• UPDATE: As Sandusky Faces Charges, Second Mile Issues Statement (Nov. 5, 2011)

• Patriot-News: Charges Filed against Sandusky (Nov. 4, 2011)

• Statement: Sandusky 'Deeply Disappointed' in Newspapers' Decision (March 31, 2011)

• The Sandusky Story: Too Much, Too Soon? (April 8, 2011)

• The Sandusky Dust-up: Response to Readers (April 15, 2011)