Just days after a new lawsuit against Penn State from two former coaches was filed, Mike McQueary has declared he’s reached “an impasse” with the university in his own suit.
In court documents filed Friday, attorneys for the former Penn State wide receiver’s coach express exasperation with Penn State over a routine legal procedure. McQueary wants Penn State to verify the “genuineness, authenticity [and] correctness” of certain documents he wants to use in his whistleblower and defamation suit against his former employer.
But McQueary’s attorneys say that Penn State’s response to his request “do not fairly meet the substance of the requested admissions.”
Penn State has been asked to verify documents including purported legal bills to Penn State for consultations related to the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal, as well as apparent emails between university officials including former Penn State President Graham Spanier and former vice-presidents Tim Curley and Gary Schultz.
For each document, Penn State does not deny their accuracy, but denies any characterizations about the documents McQueary may attempt to make. Penn State repeatedly responds that each document “is a document which speaks for itself and any characterization thereof is denied.”
“Plaintiff’s counsel…has communicated with Defense Counsel…on a number of occasions, in writing and by telephone, in an effort to resolve this dispute, but despite good faith efforts to do so, counsel are at impasse with respect to the issue of the sufficiency of Defendant’s response,” McQueary’s attorney writes.
McQueary asks the court to declare Penn State’s responses insufficient.
McQueary, who had been a key grand jury witness against Jerry Sandusky, claims he was wrongly fired from the university in the aftermath of the scandal. He is seeking $4 million in damages from Penn State.
McQueary is now one of five former assistant coaches suing Penn State over three separate lawsuits. Former coaches Jay Paterno and William Kenney are suing the National Collegiate Athletic Association, and Penn State was added as a defendant in the suit by a judge shortly after it was filed. Two other former coaches, Galen Hall and Dick Anderson, also filed a lawsuit against Penn State this week, alleging that the university owes them wages they never received.
