Settlements OK’d for Sandusky victims

Cost to Penn State not made public

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State University’s board of trustees is authorizing school officials to settle some of the remaining lawsuits filed by victims of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal, but it’s unclear how much money is at stake.

The trustees voted 18-6 Thursday to let high-ranking administrators execute the settlements “in a manner that is fair, expeditious and efficient” for the victims.

The number of settlements and the dollar amounts were not made public due to confidentiality agreements. Chairman Keith Masser said the board discussed dollar limits during a closed session before the vote.

Sandusky, a former assistant football coach at the university, is serving a prison sentence for child molestation.

“As a community, we continue to be profoundly saddened by the pain suffered by all victims of child abuse, and we remain committed to helping survivors heal and to educating others about these insidious crimes against children,” Lawrence Lokman, Penn State’s vice president for strategic communications, said in a statement.

The board’s alumni-elected trustees opposed the settlements.

Alumni-elected trustee Anthony Lubrano said he could not support the resolution in part because Penn State’s board never fully accepted or rejected the July 2012 report produced for the university by a team led by former FBI director Louis Freeh.

The report concluded that high-

high-ranking university leaders concealed key facts about Sandusky’s abuse of children to avoid bad publicity. It included more than 100 recommendations for change in areas from governance to child safety that have been adopted by the university.

The report was the basis for which the NCAA’s sanctions were levied against the university in the wake of the Sandusky scandal. Those penalties included a $60 million fine, a four-year bowl ban, scholarship limitations and vacated wins from the football program.

While the sanctions and the Big Ten’s bowl revenue ban against the university have since been overturned — with the exception of the fine that created an endowment for preventing child abuse —more victim settlements continue to add to Penn State’s costs.

“Unfortunately Penn State continues to pay almost three years later, and today we look to pay again,” Mr. Lubrano said. “But I say no more. No more resolutions to approve settlement while denying trustees access to the materials used to prepare the report. No more feeding at the trough of Penn State.”

Trustee Robert Jubelirer called it the “toughest vote I’m ever going to have to make” before also voting against the resolution.

“We’re a deep pocket university and have been targeted very, very much by those who will take advantage of who we are,” he said. “We can cite chapter and verse the amount of money that we paid out. I’m not going to repeat it. I don’t think it’s necessary. But it all came down to the unfortunate decision to hire Freeh. And that has been the linchpin of how this ties Penn State into the situation.”

The university offered a nearly $60 million settlement package to 26 victims in 2013 in exchange for an end to their legal actions.