CNN: Paterno may have known of abuse before 2001

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The long-standing question of when former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno first learned his assistant Jerry Sandusky had sexually abused children was amplified Saturday morning by a CNN story claiming the coach may have known before whistleblower Mike McQueary told him about an incident involving Sandusky in 2001.

The story is based on a one-page Pennsylvania State Police report provided by a source. It details Mr. Paterno telling Mr. McQueary in February 2001 that Mr. McQueary’s account of witnessing a sexual incident between Sandusky and a young boy “was the second complaint of this nature he had received.” The report, based on Mr. McQueary’s recollection, was written after Sandusky’s arrest in 2011.

Mr. McQueary, a one-time Penn State football assistant coach, became the state’s star witness against Sandusky. He has never publicly testified about Mr. Paterno telling him it was the second time he had heard such a complaint of sexual abuse by Sandusky.

CNN’s report contradicts Mr. Paterno’s testimony before a grand jury in 2011 in which he said he did not know of child molestation allegations against Sandusky before Mr. McQueary came to him in 2001. But an insurer has previously alleged, a judge noted in a court document last year, that a child told Mr. Paterno in 1976 that Sandusky had molested him, a claim the Paterno family has denied. Mr. Paterno died of lung cancer in 2012.

Sandusky was convicted in 2012 for sexually abusing 10 boys over