Attorney’s Deposition on 2001 Sandusky Report Revealed in McQueary Suit

Attorneys for former Penn State assistant coach Mike McQueary say a deposition from the university’s former counsel demonstrates the school hasn’t pursued discovery and should not be granted a stay in his whistleblower and defamation suit.

The university argued in late May that it has taken depositions from former vice president Gary Schultz and former athletic director Tim Curley — to whom McQueary reported in 2001 that he had seen Jerry Sandusky abusing a boy in a locker room shower– and both invoked their Fifth Amendment rights as they still await trial on charges of child endangerment and failure to report suspected child abuse.

Penn State also says it has not been able to access critical information related to Schultz and Curley.

McQueary’s attorneys claim Penn State hasn’t tried and they point to a deposition from former university counsel Wendell Courtney of the McQuaide Blasko firm as their proof.

In the deposition taken May 31, Courtney says Schultz informed him of a ‘report from a grad student feeling uncomfortable based on having seen Jerry and a young boy engaged in horseplay in the shower area of Lasch Building.’

Courtney said he researched the Child Protective Services Law and advised Schultz to report the incident to the state’s Department of Public Welfare.

Asked whether Penn State has contacted him to discuss his recollections of the work he may have conducted on the issue, Courtney said no. McQueary’s attorneys Elliott Strokoff and Timothy Fleming wrote that Penn State has not contacted Courtney or sought the information they need from Schultz and Curley because ‘it would appear from the foregoing that the university has avoided seeking to discover evidence that might further confirm the plaintiff’s allegations.’

Penn State, however, pointed out that when the university commissioned a team led by Louis Freeh to investigate what university employees may have known about Sandusky’s sexual abuse of children, Courtney declined to answer any questions.

‘Penn State engaged the Freeh firm to investigate the matter and, as set forth in Freeh’s report, Courtney declined to be interviewed by Freeh upon advice of counsel,’ Penn State spokesman Lawrence Lokman told the Associated Press. ‘So any implication that Penn State did not want the benefit of Courtney’s input is simply not correct.’

That Courtney may have told Schultz to report the the 2001 incident to Children & Youth Services fills in a blank, but is not really a revelation. Schultz told the investigating grand jury in 2011 that he believed the same agency that had been called to investigate a 1998 report about Sandusky also was called in 2001.

The Freeh report in 2012 found records of Schultz’s conference call with Courtney — who served as Penn State’s outside legal counsel for nearly 30 years — regarding ‘reporting of suspected child abuse’ the same day he was informed of McQueary’s report. The documents showed Courtney conducted legal research and called Schultz back later that day.

The Freeh report also found Schultz’s notes which indicated reporting to ‘dept. of welfare’ as a course of action. Emails among Curley, Schultz and former President Graham Spanier did not appear to indicate that report was made.

It has also been established in multiple accounts that Curley met with Jack Raykovitz, the director of Sandusky’s Second Mile charity for at-risk youth, to inform him Sandusky had been seen in the shower with a boy and it made McQueary uncomfortable.

McQueary’s suit claims that Penn State discriminated against him for cooperating with prosecutors in the investigation of former Penn State football assistant coach Sandusky, who was convicted on 45 counts related to child sexual abuse in 2012. He also charges that he was defamed by verbal and written statements from university administrators which he says suggested he had lied about what he had seen and told them in grand jury testimony. He says Curley and Schultz misrepresented to him that they would see his reported incident would be investigated.

Since he was not retained as a coach in 2012, he is seeking back and future pay as well as general damages and damages incurred from harm to his ability to earn a living.