The former longtime defensive coordinator for Penn State University’s football team was arrested over the weekend after a grand jury indicted him on dozens of charges stemming from alleged sexual abuse of several young boys.
Jerry Sandusky, 67, is accused of fondling and engaging in oral and anal sex with eight boys throughout a 15-year period.
Sandusky retired in 1999 after 23 years with the university’s football team. The abuse is alleged to have happened both during and after his time at Penn State.
Sandusky is free on $100,000 bail.
Two other high-ranking officials have also been implicated in the scandal.
Athletic director Tim Curley, 57, and university vice president Gary Schultz, 62, each face one count of failure to report for not informing law enforcement of allegations of sex abuse against Sandusky and one count of perjury for allegedly lying about their knowledge of the incidents to the grand jury.
Curley and Schultz turned themselves in Monday, and both are free on $75,000 bail each.
After an emergency meeting of the university’s board of trustees Sunday, Penn State announced both men would resign from their posts effectively immediately — with Curley being placed on administrative leave and Schultz returning to retirement.
Sandusky is the founder of youth-service organization The Second Mile, which, according to the Attorney General, he utilized to make contact with his alleged victims.
The first victim to come forward, who brought his case to the Centre County District Attorney, said he met Sandusky when he was 11 or 12 years old and attending a Second Mile camp at Penn State.
The Attorney General’s Office said Sandusky maintained contact with the boy and invited him over for overnight visits, during which the sexual abuse began. The abuse continued as the boy entered high school but his mother learned of the abuse and contacted the teen’s school district in 2009, which banned Sandusky from its premises. A joint investigation by the State Police and the Attorney General launched shortly thereafter.
“This is a case about a sexual predator who used his position within the university and community to repeatedly prey on young boys,” said Attorney General Linda Kelly.
Sandusky allegedly abused the eight victims from 1994-2009, and the Attorney General’s Office is continuing to investigate for more victims.
At least two incidents took place on Penn State’s campus.
According to Kelly, a graduate assistant walked in on Sandusky sexually assaulting a 10-year-old boy in the locker-room shower of the University Park campus in 2002.
The individual reported the incident to head football coach Joe Paterno, who related the story to Curley. Curley and Schultz met with the witness but Kelly said they did not report the incident to “any law-enforcement or child-protective agency, as required by Pennsylvania law,” and never attempted to learn the child’s identity.
Curley and Schultz did set down a new mandate that Sandusky not be permitted to bring Second Mile children into the football building on campus, to which Sandusky had access after his retirement.
Curley repeatedly denied he knew of the sexual abuse allegations to the grand jury, and Schultz stated he and Curley “had no indication that a crime had occurred,” leading to the perjury charges.
Following the indictment, the role of Paterno, the famed coach who has led the team for 46 years, came into question: the Board of Trustees announced Wednesday night that Paterno, 84, was terminated from his position, effective immediately. University president Graham Spanier was also let go as a result of the Sandusky scandal.
The board, which will meet Friday, said it would appoint a special committee to investigate the circumstances in the case.