Former Penn State President Graham Spanier won’t be reporting to the Centre County Correctional Facility on Saturday, as had been previously scheduled.
A Dauphin County judge on Thursday signed an order delaying when Spanier would report, pending resolution of his appeal.
Spanier had initially been ordered to report to jail on July 15, along with former Penn State athletic director Tim Curley and senior vice president Gary Schultz. Each was convicted in March of one count of endangering the welfare of a child related to their handling of a report in 2001 about Jerry Sandusky with a boy in a locker room shower. Spanier and Schultz were sentenced to two months incarceration followed by at least two and four months, respectively, of house arrest. Curley was sentenced to three months in jail followed by at least four months of house arrest.
While Curley and Schultz pleaded guilty before trial and are not appealing their convictions or sentence length, Spanier went to trial and was found guilty on the one misdemeanor count, while being acquitted of felony counts of child endangerment and conspiracy. On July 6, after specially-presiding judge John Boccabella denied his motion for an acquittal or new trial, Spanier filed notice that he was appealing to Pennsylvania Superior Court.
On Thursday, Dauphin County President Judge Richard A. Lewis signed an order stating ‘[Spanier] is not required to report on July 15, 2017, and his report date will be re-set pending resolution of his appeal.’
In a separate order, Lewis required that Spanier ‘file a specific statement of errors complained of on appeal’ within 21 days.
Lewis signed the orders on behalf of Boccabella.
Curley and Schultz had both sought to have their sentences amended to served their entire periods of confinement under house arrest. Curley cited his own medical issues in battling cancer, and Schultz said he is tasked with the day-to-day care of his wife and elderly mother-in-law.
Boccabella denied Schultz’s request and did not address Curley’s. He did, however, grant both of their requests for work-release if county prison authorities determine their employment meets requirements. Though they were convicted in Dauphin County, the men had their sentences transferred to Centre County after consideration by the Centre County Prison Board.
In his initial motion to have the trial verdict overturned, Spanier’s attorney, Sam Silver, argued that the charge of child endangerment was barred by the statute of limitations and that prosecutors provided no evidence that he had a legally-defined duty of care for children abused by Sandusky. He also contended that Boccabella erred in reinstating a conspiracy charge that was dismissed by Pennsylvania Superior Court and that Boccabella gave incomplete instructions to the jury.
