The Jerry Sandusky child molestation case doesn’t end with Sandusky’s prison sentence.
On Thursday, November 1st, former Penn State President Graham B. Spanier was charged with perjury, obstruction of justice, and endangering the welfare of children because of his actions concerning covering up the allegations of Sandusky’s molestation. He is one of three this day that prosecutors believe to be an accomplice to the horrendous acts of Sandusky, with former athletic director Timothy M. Curley and former Vice President Gary C. Schultz being the other two.
Spanier, 64, had been president for 16 years before he was forced to step down after Sandusky’s arrest in November, 2011. He claims that he has no recollection of any suspected emails concerning a 1998 complaint in which a woman declares her son to be a victim of a child molestation act that involved Sandusky showering with her son. As for a 2001 complaint from a team assistant who says he walked in on Sandusky sexually abusing a boy inside a team shower, Spanier affirms that he has only a “slight recollection”.
Decisions by these three men have been highly scrutinized by FBI reports stating that these men not only turned a blind eye to these contentions, but “empowered” the abuse by giving him access to school facilities and concealed his acts from university trustees. Although Spanier pleads that the emails he received never suggested anything more than “horseplay”, the FBI believes that these three men understood in totality what was happening and reacted by only asking Sandusky to receive help and forbidding him to bring anymore children within Penn State facilities.
As for Sandusky, who begs his innocence, he was sentenced to 30-60 years inside a maximum security prison with counts of sexual abuse to 10 boys over the age of 15.
Sexual accusations, especially those concerning children, are some of the most heinous crimes a person can commit. As shown above, they are harshly punished and because of laws like the Megan Act, they will forever rightfully tarnish a person’s reputation. If you or someone you know has been wrongfully accused of sexual crimes, act now before it is too late and retain a trusted lawyer who can defend you and your name from forever being written off as a sexual predator.