Prosecutors seek jail time for ex-Penn State president

Prosecutors want a judge to jail former Penn State President Graham Spanier for his conviction in hushing up suspected child sex abuse in 2001 by Jerry Sandusky, saying he could have prevented other boys from being victimized by the former assistant football coach.

In a court filing unsealed Thursday, the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office also assailed two one-time Penn State administrators for their testimony in Spanier’s March trial after they pleaded guilty in the case.

Sentencing for all three men is Friday in Dauphin County court.

Prosecutors said state sentencing guidelines indicate that Spanier should get up to a year in jail for his child endangerment conviction.

“The child who was assaulted in the February 2001 shower incident and all of Sandusky’s victims that followed were particularly harmed as timely, appropriate action against Sandusky could have prevented their victimization,” prosecutors wrote in the 14page sentencing memorandum. “Their lives have been turned upside down.”

They also say that, to this day, the identity of the boy seen in the shower with Sandusky “is still in question” in part because Spanier and the other two men — ex-athletic director Tim Curley and ex-vice president Gary Schultz — did not alert authorities.

Curley and Schultz each pleaded guilty to child endangerment.

Spanier’s four-day trial revolved around a complaint by a graduate coaching assistant, Mike McQueary, who has testified that he told Penn State officials — including the late football coach Joe Paterno — about seeing Sandusky sexually molesting a boy in a team shower in 2001.

Sandusky was not arrested until 2011, after an anonymous tip led prosecutors to investigate. Sandusky was convicted the next year of sexually abusing 10 boys and is serving 30 to 60 years in prison. At least four victims at Sandusky’s trial said they were molested after 2001.