Former Penn State athletic director Tim Curley testified Wednesday that he should have done more with a 2001 report about Jerry Sandusky in a shower with a boy, but also maintained he was never told of anything sexual occurring and that he believed at the time he and other officials were taking appropriate action.
Curley took the stand as a prosecution witness in the trial of former Penn State president Graham Spanier on child endangerment and conspiracy charges. Curley, along with former senior vice president Gary Schultz, pleaded guilty last week to misdemeanor charges of endangering the welfare of children for their handling of that 2001 incident.
That left Spanier as the sole defendant in the case, with his trial entering its second day of testimony on Wednesday.
Curley said on Wednesday that he pleaded guilty because ‘I felt like I should have done more,’ according to Pennlive.com. ‘At the end of the day, I wished I would have done more, didn’t ask enough questions, so I pled guilty.’
Curley recounted that in February 2001, he and Schultz were informed by then-Penn State football coach Joe Paterno that then-graduate assistant Mike McQueary had reported seeing Sandusky, the former defensive assistant coach who was later charged in 2011, with a boy in a Lasch Football Building locker room shower and said there was ‘horseplay, wrestling in the shower,’ according to Philly.com.
Schultz and Curley met with McQueary, who Curley said did not describe anything sexual. On Tuesday, McQueary testified that he made clear to the two administrators that he had witnessed Sandusky engaged in a sexual act with the boy.
Spanier never spoke to McQueary directly about the incident and received his information from Curley and Schultz.
Ultimately, emails showed and Curley verified, the three men agreed to tell Sandusky not to bring children into the locker rooms, tell him to seek counseling and to tell the executive director of Sandusky’s Second Mile charity for at-risk youth. That director, psychologist Jack Raykovitz, testified on Tuesday that he also was not informed of anything sexual.
That final decision removed a previously suggested step of going to the Department of Public Welfare about the report. Curley had said in an email he was ‘uncomfortable’ with going to child welfare authorities after talking it over with Paterno. Curley could not recall his discussion with Paterno or Paterno’s reaction, but said that the decision not to inform DPW was Curley’s.
When asked by Spanier attorney Sam Silver if he thought he was taking steps that would endanger children, Curley said no.
‘We did what we thought was appropriate, and we took action,’ Curley said, per PennLive.
Curley said the men did not believe they were dealing with a criminal act and thought Sandusky had boundary issues.
The former AD and State College native said he never spoke directly with Spanier about an earlier incident in 1998, when Sandusky was investigated by Penn State Police and child welfare authorities for another report of Sandusky showering with a boy.
Spanier was copied on an email thread about the investigation. The Centre County District Attorney declined to prosecute the case, and Schultz wrote at the end of the email string that the matter was closed, with Curley responding ‘I hope it is now behind us.’
Spanier did not respond to any of the emails, and testified in McQueary’s civil trial against Penn State last fall that he did not recall ever seeing it and that he had been traveling at the time.
In the course of those emails, Curley said ‘I have touched base with coach. Keep us posted,’ and later, ‘Coach is anxious to hear where it stands.’ He testified Wednesday that ‘coach’ referred to Paterno.
Curley said he was confident he never met with Spanier about the 1998 case, but it would be likely that Spanier would be informed about the investigation of a high-profile figure like Sandusky.
He also said that at some point after McQueary made his report in 2001, he recalled the 1998 incident and noted that it sounded similar, the AP reported.
Attorney general’s office investigator Anthony Sassano testified that four of the eight individuals who testified at Sandusky’s 2012 trial that they had been abused had been so after McQueary’s 2001 report. Sandusky was convicted in 2012 on 45 counts of child sexual abuse. He is serving a 30-60 year sentence and is continuing to appeal.
Of his guilty plea, Curley said he could receive probation or a prison sentence, but that because he has lung cancer, he can demonstrate the need to serve any jail time under house arrest.
Two former assistants to Schultz also testified on Wednesday that the former vice president kept a confidential file on Sandusky, per the Daily Collegian. Both said that to their knowledge Spanier was not aware of the file.
Lisa Powers, a Penn State public relations director, testified that Spanier told her when Sandusky was charged in 2011 that he had no knowledge of the 1998 incident.
