Complaint finally filed in Spanier suit

Graham Spanier’s criminal case has not hit the court yet, but he still has not given up attempts to clear his name civilly.

The former Penn State president filed a new complaint in Centre County court on Wednesday.

It was July 2013 when Spanier first filed his intent to sue Louis Freeh, the former FBI director and federal judge hired by Penn State’s board of trustees to investigate the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal. Spanier, who was relieved of duty in November 2011 along with former head football coach Joe Paterno, was one of four men singled out in Freeh’s 2012 report as bearing responsibility.

But Spanier has spent years insisting that he is innocent of Freeh’s de facto indictment, which was followed by an actual indictment on charges of perjury, conspiracy, obstruction of justice and child endangerment in November 2012 by a Pennsylvania grand jury. Last month, a judge dropped the perjury, conspiracy and obstruction charges, although prosecutors are asking the court to reconsider.

Spanier’s latest paperwork was anticipated. In January, Lebanon County Senior Judge Robert Eby granted permission for him to add Freeh Group International Solutions. In March 2015, Spanier filed a request to add additional parties, including FGIS and Penn State, as well as permission to lift a previously granted stay on the case until the conclusion of the criminal trial. The original defamation suit against Freeh and his law firm Freeh, Sporkin and Sullivan is joined by a tortious interference claim against FGIS.

Eby did not permit Spanier to add seven counts against the university to the suit, saying that unlike the FGIS claims, they were not as overlapping. However, the latest document is rife with hits at Penn State. Spanier accuses his former employer of “effectively giving (Freeh and his firm) carte blanche to make statements he deemed necessary to accomplish the board’s directives” and pushing the investigation in a direction “designed to meet NCAA objectives.”

Penn State has maintained that despite contracting with Freeh, the investigation was independent.

“Freeh, FSS and FGIS tailored their investigation to find and manufacture the ‘lack of institutional control’ the NCAA wanted,” wrote Spanier’s attorneys.

The tortious interference claims come in when Spanier notes his post-Penn State employment. While working on two classified government projects in April 2012, the contracts were withdrawn. Spanier said he discovered in October 2013 why that happened, when an independent investigator, Ryan Bagwell of the grass-roots group Penn State Sunshine Fund, uncovered an email chain in which his attorneys suggest Freeh took steps to have a government agency terminate the work.

Spanier is seeking unspecified punitive damages and attorney’s fees.

This story was originally published February 10, 2016 at 8:46 PM with the headline "Complaint finally filed in Spanier suit."