3/20/17
by News Department on 03/20/17Spanier's trial to begin today...
Penn State's former president faces trial today on charges that children were put at risk by how he responded to complaints about Jerry Sandusky more than 15 years ago, and two of his former top lieutenants who just pleaded guilty in the case could testify against him.
A Harrisburg jury will decide whether 68 year old Graham Spanier's handling of the Sandusky scandal amounted to the three felonies he stands accused of.
Spanier had spent 16 years as the powerful leader of the vast Penn State university system when a grand jury investigation produced child molestation charges against Sandusky in 2011, as well as allegations the school's vice president for business and finance, Gary Schultz, and the athletic director, Tim Curley, had engaged in a criminal cover-up.
Spanier was soon after pushed out of the presidency and agreed to a deal that gave him 18 months' salary, a $1.5 million retirement payment, a $700,000 post-presidency sabbatical payment and five years of tenured faculty service at $600,000 annually, ending this coming November.
