Judge greenlights Spanier suit against Freeh

Former Penn State president Graham Spanier’s lawsuit against Louis Freeh can roll forward.

Spanier is suing the former FBI director and federal judge in Centre County court for defamation. Freeh’s commissioned review of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal, which happened during Spanier’s tenure and led to his dismissal in November 2011, named the former president as one of four people culpable in a cover-up.

On Monday, Lebanon County Senior Judge Robert Eby, specially presiding over the case, issued an order granting Spanier’s motion to modify a stay and partially granting a motion to add new parties to the suit.

Spanier petitioned the court in March to make the changes at the same time he finally filed the complaint he had given notice he would pursue all the way back in July 2013. But after that, Freeh’s camp asked that Centre County Judge Jonathan Grine recuse himself and a new judge be brought in. Eby came on board in July 2015.

The judge granted Spanier’s request to modify the stay that has been in place for more than two years on the case. Plaintiff attorneys asked for the stay in 2013 because of Spanier’s pending criminal trial in Dauphin County. Spanier is charged with perjury, conspiracy, child endangerment and obstruction in connection with the Sandusky case.

However, as that case drags into its fourth year without heading to trial, Eby agreed that the civil case against Freeh could progress.

“Both parties have now agreed to a complete lifting of the stay, with the stipulation that the court will manage Fifth Amendment concerns of other witnesses on an ad hoc basis as they arise,” Eby wrote.

While Spanier has waived his Fifth Amendment rights to move forward, other potential witnesses, including his criminal co-defendants, former athletic director Tim Curley and former vice president Gary Schultz, have not.

Eby also agreed that Freeh’s company, Freeh Group International Solutions, could be brought into the case on a tortious interference claim, pointing to a “common factual background” between the two issues.

When it came to Penn State, however, Eby declined to add in the proposed seven counts of breach of contract, saying no proven fact in the action against Freeh and FGIS would be “dispositive of a factual issue in his contract action against Penn State.”

This story was originally published January 11, 2016 at 5:03 PM with the headline "Judge greenlights Spanier suit against Freeh."