Penn State Emails Raise Questions
A series of 2001 emails could lead to charges for former president Graham Spanier, NBC says.
| Posted Saturday, June 30, 2012, at 4:40 PM
Photo by Jeff Swensen/Getty Images.
A former Penn State president may have known about (and failed to report) a 2001 shower incident involving now jailed former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, according to a series of 2001 emails among university officials.
The emails were first reported by NBC, who explains that the evidence could result in more criminal charges against university officials who may have covered up Sandusky's conduct, including former Penn State President Graham Spanier.
As CNN, who saw the apparent emails, reports, the emails detail Spanier (who was fired last November) and two other former university officials's discussion of a 2001 allegation that Sandusky was caught sexually abusing a boy in a shower.
The two other officials are athletic director Tim Curley and finance official Gary Schultz, who have pleaded not guilty to charges of perjury in connection to the sex abuse investigation.
In the emails, Spanier reportedly said that attempting to deal with the incident without contacting authorities "is a more humane and upfront way to handle this." Spanier also reportedly acknowledges in a separate email that the university could become "vulnerable" for failure to report the incident. Sandusky is not referred to by name, and children discussed in the email are referred to as "guests."
The emails discuss a 2001 incident witnessed by then graduate assistant Mike McQueary, who reported what he saw to university officials. Schultz and Spanier have previously said that they didn't alert authorities to the incident because they took his account to describe more innocent "horsing around."
