Commonwealth Court returns Sandusky pension

Jerry Sandusky will get his pension back.

How much he gets is still up in the air.

In a decision handed down by the Commonwealth Court on Friday, the former Nittany Lions defensive coordinator, convicted of 45 counts of child sexual abuse crimes in 2012, won his appeal of the Pennsylvania State Employees’ Retirement System’s decision to take away that monthly check.

PSERS issued its decision in December 2014, taking away the $4,900 per month stipend that Sandusky earned after 30 years on the Penn State payroll.

The ruling claimed that, as a school employee, Sandusky’s conviction triggered the Public Employee Pension Forfeiture Act.

The Commonwealth Court disagreed.

“Because we find that nothing in the record in any way establishes that Mr. Sandusky was a PSU employee when the underlying criminal acts were committed, we reverse the board’s decision,” wrote President Judge Dan Pelligrini in the decision.

Sandusky retired at the end of the 1999 football season, 12 years before a grand jury recommended charges against him. He was rehired on a temporary basis immediately afterward for 95 days. As part of the terms of his retirement, the university paid him $168,000 in cash, gave him complimentary athletic tickets, allowed him free access to facilities and provided an office in the East Area locker room complex, as well as agreeing to “work collaboratively” with Sandusky for The Second Mile.

TSM was Sandusky’s children’s charity, which was also where he encountered the boys who accused him of sexual abuse.

“... (H)e does not qualify as a ‘school employee’ because he did not maintain an employee-employer relationship with Penn State after 1999...,” wrote Pellegrini. “...(I)t is not enough that Mr. Sandusky engaged in ‘work relating to’ PSU; rather, to be a ‘school employee,’ he had to complete that work on PSU’s behalf, as an employee of PSU.”

That still means that Sandusky and his wife, Dottie, have been without their pension income since it was denied. The court thus looked at the issue of interest on the disbursements they did not receive.

Pellegrini wrote that, as the retirement code did require the benefits to be granted, the state retirement board’s decision constituted “wrongful withholding under common law.” Sandusky’s case was remanded to the State Employees Retirement Board to make a determination of exactly what moneys were owed to the Sanduskys, including a 6 percent interest rate.

Judge Renee Cohn Jubelirer did not participate in the decision. Cohn Jubelirer is the wife of former state senator and lieutenant governor Bob Jubelirer, a Penn State trustee.

Sandusky remains incarcerated in Greene state prison.

This story was originally published November 13, 2015 at 2:22 PM with the headline "Commonwealth Court returns Sandusky pension."