Two Penn State Ex-Administrators Plead Guilty to Child Endangerment in Jerry Sandusky Case

Two former Pennsylvania State University officials pleaded guilty on Monday to misdemeanor child-endangerment charges relating to their mishandling of child-abuse allegations against former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky.

Tim Curley, a 62-year-old former athletic director, and Gary Schultz, a 67-year-old one-time vice president, could receive up to five years in prison for child-endangerment. No sentencing date was set.

They reached a deal in which prosecutors dropped three felony charges of child endangerment and conspiracy that carried up to seven years each.

Former Penn State president Graham Spanier, 68, was also charged. He is expected to appear in court next week.

Sandusky was sentenced to 30 to 60 years in prison on 45 counts of child sexual abuse (against 10 boys in total) in 2012. The revelations of his molestations of players, culminated in a 2011 scandal that saw Penn State head coach Joe Paterno fired. A few months after Sandusky’s arrest, Paterno died of lung cancer at age 85. The head coach was never charged with a crime.

Curley, Schultz and Spanier handled a 2001 complaint from then-graduate assistant Mike McQueary, who said he witnessed Sandusky— then a Penn State defensive coordinator— sexually molesting a boy in the team shower. The three administrators did not report this complaint to police or child welfare authorities, prosecutors stated, instead choosing to tell Sandusky he was no longer permitted to bring children to the university campus.

Sandusky then went on to abuse more boys in the Nittany Lions’ shower.

Sandusky’s son, Jeffrey Sandusky, was charged with 14 counts of sexual offenses involving children in February.

According to a report commissioned by Penn State and conducted by former FBI director Louis Freeh, Paterno and the three other administrators did not disclose the allegations against Sandusky for fear of bad publicity.

Penn State’s costs related to the Sandusky scandal are approaching a quarter-billion dollars.

The university has also paid $93 million in settlements with 33 people who claimed they were sexually abused by Sandusky. In addition, Penn State was fined $48 million by the NCAA.

This past season, the Nittany Lions won the Big Ten Championship and reached the Rose Bowl.

BELLEFONTE, PA – AUGUST 12: Jerry Sandusky enters the Centre County Courthouse to appeal his child sex abuse conviction on August 12, 2016 in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania. Sandusky was facing a prison sentence for his conviction in June, 2012 on 45 counts of child sexual abuse, including while he was the defensive coordinator for the Penn State college football team. (Photo by Justin K. Aller/Getty Images)