Top PSU Officials Charged in Sandusky Scandal

By Melissa Daniels | PA Independent

HARRISBURG — Three men who headed Penn State University are accused of covering up the horrific child abuse committed byJerry Sandusky.

If found guilty, they could face not only prison time but potentially the loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars in retirement benefits.

Attorney General Linda Kelly has announced five charges brought against former PSU president Graham Spanier, and additional charges to former senior vice president Gary Schultz and former athletic director Tim Curley.

“This case is about three men who used their positions at Penn State to conceal and cover-up for years the activity of a known child predator,” said Kelly at a news conference here.

All are facing perjury charges, among others including conspiracy. For Schultz, who is retired from PSU and a member of the State Employees’ Retirement System, a conviction on that count means he would have to forfeit his approximately $331,000 annual pension benefit, per state law.

For Spanier and Curley, who are not members of SERS, that law would not apply.

In addition to SERS, PSU offers the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association-College Equities Retirement Fund.

PA Independent could not confirm if Spanier and Curley are enrolled in TIAA-CREF or if membership in TIAA-CREF is available to the public.

TIAA-CREF serves more than 15,000 institutions, with 3.7 million active and retired members and $487 billion in assets,according to its website.

Spanier is on administrative leave, after stepping down as president while remaining a tenured faculty member, according to a PSU statement. Spanier is the highest-paid PSU employee, with a salary of more than $660,000, per a Right-to-Knowreport published by PSU in 2012.

University officials said Curley, who is on administrative leave, will not have his contract renewed when it expires in 2013.

The state’s grand jury presentment of the case shows investigators established that Spanier, Schultz and Curley had knowledge of Sandusky’s assaults on young boys in the Penn State locker room showers as early as 1998.