Did longtime Penn State football coach Joe Paterno know about Jerry Sandusky’s molestation of boys long before he said he did?
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The allegation is revealed in an order issued by a Philadelphia judge in litigation between an insurance company and Penn State.
But sources told NBC News that one former Penn State assistant coach witnessed an incident in the late 1970s. Sandusky was sentenced to at least 30 years in prison, effectively a life sentence, in the child sexual abuse scandal that brought shame to Penn State and led to coach Joe Paterno’s downfall.
A lawsuit between Penn State and an insurance company, Pennsylvania Manufacturer’s Association Insurance (PMA).
The university says it has no records of any kind on the 1976 allegation.
“I’d be willing to sit on a witness stand and confront Joe Paterno”, he told CNN past year.
Then-graduate assistant coach Mike McQueary said he witnessed Sandusky molesting the child and said he informed Paterno of the attack. The victim, referred to as Victim A in the story, says Sandusky came up behind him in a bathroom, wrestled him to the ground and raped him. Three administrators who worked with him as high-ranking university officials await trial on criminal charges for their handling of the Sandusky scandal.
Sandusky is now serving 30-60 years in prison after he was convicted of molesting 10 boys he met through a charity dating back to 1994. Most of Sandusky’s victims who came forward already have agreed to a confidential settlement with Penn State.
Victim A said he was already the victim of sexual abuse by a local priest. “My family and I have no knowledge of the allegation released [this week]”, Mrs. Paterno wrote in a letter to the university’s board of trustees.
Paterno, who died in January 2012, was never charged with any crimes. Like for Victim A, a 60-year-old State College native and Sandusky’s oldest known victim. “It would be inappropriate to do otherwise”, Penn State said.
“I made it clear there were things done to me that I just can’t believe could have been done to me and I couldn’t escape”.
The attorney general’s office did not prosecute Mr. Paterno, who told an investigating grand jury in 2011 that he first heard concerns about Sandusky and a child in 2001.
In his order Wednesday, he said that PMA did have to pay some claims.
According to Penn Live, the allegation was found in one line of the court documents.
“We can not allow this situation to be ruled by allegations and speculation”, she wrote.
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Our own Tom Winter and Hannah Rappleye of our own NBC News reported Friday that “as many as six” Penn State assistant coaches witnessed abusive acts by Sandusky, dating back to the 1970’s. These are sensitive matters, and we want to be respectful of the rights of all individuals involved.
