Who were the key players in the Penn State sex abuse scandal, and where are they now?
The arrest of former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky on Nov. 5, 2011, changed the lives of dozens of people.
Here’s a look at some of the central figures, and what they are doing more than 10 years later.
The Sandusky family
Jerry Sandusky: Sandusky, 79, was convicted in 2012 of the sexual abuse of 10 boys. The longtime assistant coach is serving a 30-year minimum sentence at Laurel Highlands state prison in southwest Pennsylvania. He maintains his innocence.
Dottie Sandusky: Sandusky’s wife has stood by her husband. She posted his bail and has accompanied him to many of his court appearances.
Jeffrey Sandusky: Sandusky’s son pleaded guilty in to pressuring a teenage girl to send him naked photos and asking her teen sister to perform a sex act. He was sentenced in December 2017 to 3 1/2 to seven years in state prison.
Penn State executives
Graham Spanier: The former university president was forced out as the school’s top administrator when Sandusky was arrested. Spanier, 74, was convicted on one misdemeanor count of child endangerment and served 58 days in the Centre County Correctional Facility. In 2022, he published a book about the scandal, “In the Lions’ Den: The Penn State Scandal and a Rush to Judgment.”
Tim Curley: Curley, 69, served as the university’s athletic director when Sandusky was arrested. He pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of child endangerment for his role in covering up the child sexual abuse allegations and served three months in the county jail.
Gary Schultz: Like Curley, the former vice president pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of child endangerment. Schultz served two months behind bars.
Rodney Erickson: Erickson took over as the 17th president in Penn State’s history after Spanier’s ousting. He retired in 2014 and was replaced by Eric Barron.
Penn State football
Mike McQueary: He was the first Penn State employee to report Sandusky. He won $12.3 million as part of a lawsuit against the university, where he alleged he was wrongfully terminated.
Bill O’Brien: He led the Nittany Lions in the aftermath of the scandal, one of the tallest tasks in college football history. His team went 15-9 during his two seasons in Happy Valley.
The Paterno family
Joe Paterno: The Hall of Fame coach who roamed the Penn State sidelines for 46 years was nearing the end of his career when his longtime assistant was arrested.
Paterno announced he would not coach after the season’s end, but was pushed out by the board of trustees days later over his inaction when confronted by the allegations lodged against Sandusky.
Paterno died of lung cancer on Jan. 22, 2012. He was 85.
Sue Paterno: Paterno’s wife and the university’s leadership were at odds for years after Joe Pa’s death. The family maintained he was unfairly scapegoated.
Those tensions eased in 2020, when the school and Paterno’s widow reached a settlement to resolve all legal claims.
She remains active in the State College community and organizations including Special Olympics Pennsylvania.
Jay Paterno: He was let go as an assistant football coach when Bill O’Brien was hired as coach in 2012. He has served as an alumni-elected member of the Penn State board since 2017 and was reelected to the board in May 2023.
The Paterno statue: The university removed the 7-foot, 900-pound bronze statue from outside Beaver Stadium after the NCAA announced it would be handing down sanctions against the university. Penn State has said it has no plans to reinstall the statue.
Board of trustees
The board: The university’s decision-makers were the ones who officially announced Spanier and Paterno would be leaving their posts.
A report led by Louis Freeh found the board did not perform its oversight duties, allowing four of the most powerful people at the university to enable Sandusky’s abuse. Their complacent approach left them unprepared to respond to the scandal, Freeh wrote.
Anthony Lubrano: He was among the most outspoken Penn State alumni who argued the university mishandled the scandal. He was reelected to the university’s board in 2020 and again in 2023.
Organizations
The NCAA: Penn State was fined $60 million, the football team was banned from the postseason for four years, 111 wins under Paterno and one win under interim coach Tom Bradley were vacated and the team was capped at 65 scholarship players starting in 2014.
The governing body of college sports removed the bowl ban and restored the program’s scholarships in 2014. Paterno’s wins were restored as part of a lawsuit settlement.
The Second Mile: Sandusky founded the charity in 1977, ostensibly to help at-risk youth. State prosecutors said he used the charity as a way to find children he would later abuse.
Penn State collected hundreds of thousands of dollars from the defunct charity to settle claims from a threatened lawsuit.
Prosecutors, lawyers and investigators
Louis Freeh: The former FBI director led an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the charges filed against Sandusky, Spanier, Curley and Schultz.
The latter three, plus Paterno, showed a “striking lack of empathy” and a “total and consistent disregard” toward those abused by Sandusky, Freeh wrote in his 267-page report.
Paterno’s family called the report a “failure” that was loaded with errors, and in 2019 an internal report by seven Penn State trustees also questioned the findings of the report.
Frank Fina: The former state prosecutor led the investigation into Sandusky. He was suspended in February 2020 for one year and a day over his handling of a grand jury witness in the case. He has not applied for reinstatement.
Cynthia Baldwin: Penn State’s former lawyer who was accused of violating professional rules in her representation of Spanier, Schultz and Curley was publicly reprimanded the state Supreme Court.
Joe Amendola: The State College lawyer represented Sandusky through his conviction and 2012 sentencing. He was criticized for allowing Sandusky to be interviewed by Bob Costas in the days after his arrest.
Al Lindsay: The Pittsburgh-area lawyer has represented Sandusky on several appeals, most of which have been rejected or resulted in little change.
Others connected to the case
Jake Corman: Corman, who retired from the Pennsylvania Senate in 2022 after an unsuccessful run for governor, took part in the lawsuit against the NCAA that restored Paterno’s victories. The fight against the NCAA defined his career, he wrote in November 2022.
Sara Ganim: The Penn State alumna was the first to report Sandusky was the subject of a grand jury investigation. She won a Pulitzer Prize for her coverage at 24, becoming the third-youngest person to win the highest national honor in journalism.
Tom Corbett: He launched the investigation as attorney general in 2009 and was elected governor two years later. The Republican lost his bid for reelection in 2014.
This story was originally published November 5, 2021 at 5:00 AM.