3 ex-Penn State officials get jail

sickens me to think I might have played a part in children being hurt.”

The case hinged on coaching assistant Mike McQueary’s claim that he witnessed Sandusky — a retired member of the coaching staff who ran a charity for youngsters — molesting a boy in the team showers in 2001. Prosecutors said that after McQueary recounted what he saw, the three administrators decided not to report it to authorities to protect the university’s reputation.

Sandusky was not arrested until 2011, after a prosecutor got an anonymous email tip. Sandusky was found guilty the next year of sexually abusing 10 boys and is serving 30 to 60 years in prison.

Penn State has paid out nearly a quarter-billion dollars in fines, settlements and other costs associated with the scandal, and the football program suffered heavy NCAA sanctions. More than 100 of Paterno’s victories were briefly erased from the record books.

Both the judge and prosecutors Friday thrust blame onto Paterno himself. Paterno was fired but never charged with a crime; he died of lung cancer at age 85 two months after Sandusky’s arrest.

Boccabella noted that others who were aware of McQueary’s report, including McQueary and Paterno, could have called police.

Paterno “could have made that phone call without so much as getting his hands dirty,” Boccabella said. “Why he didn’t is beyond me.”

Paterno’s son, Jay Paterno, said Friday his father followed the law in alerting Curley and Schultz.