McQueary ends whistleblower lawsuit against Penn State
Mike McQueary, the former Penn State assistant football coach who testified that he witnessed Jerry Sandusky sexually abusing a boy in a locker-room shower in 2001, has ended his defamation and whistleblower lawsuit against the university.
McQueary, who testified in vivid detail during the 2012 trial in which Sandusky was convicted of sexually abusing 10 boys over a period of 15 years, had filed the lawsuit over lost wages in 2012, when he lost his job after the firing of former coach Joe Paterno when allegations about Sandusky, a former assistant to the late head coach, came to light in the fall of 2011.
Sandusky is serving a 30- to 60year sentence in prison.
Court records show an attorney for McQueary filed for the lawsuit to be ended with prejudice Friday, which means it cannot be brought to court again. Although neither side indicated whether the parties had reached a settlement, the action points to the likelihood of one.
In a civil suit decision that Penn State has been seeking to have overturned, McQueary had been awarded more than $12 million last year.
McQueary was a graduate assistant at the time of the incident involving Sandusky and he testified that he witnessed and heard Sandusky sodomizing a young boy in the showers. McQueary went on to testify that he alerted Paterno.
“I’m sorry you had to see that,” he said Paterno told him in a brief conversation.
“It’s terrible ... I need to think and tell some people what you saw and I’ll let you know what we’ll do next ... I know it’s probably tough for you to come here and tell me this, but you’ve done the absolute right thing.”
Paterno told his superiors, but an inquiry resulted in no charges and Sandusky continued to use Penn State facilities.
McQueary said he would quickly leave the weight room whenever Sandusky entered and, when others questioned his reluctance to being around Sandusky, he said he’d answer, “I just don’t care to be around him.”