Judge orders ex-Penn State officials to stand trial for alleged cover-up in Sandusky sex abuse case

Former Penn State president Graham Spanier, along with two other former school officials, will face charges connected to an alleged cover-up of former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky's sexual abuse. (Getty Images)

A judge has ordered three former Penn State officials to stand trial on all charges related to their alleged cover up in the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse scandal, according to multiple reports including the Associated Press.

District Judge William Wenner ruled Tuesday that then-president Graham Spanier, retired university vice president Gary Schultz and then-athletic director Tim Curley must face trial on charges they covered up an allegation that Sandusky, a former Penn State assistant football coach, was sexually preying on and abusing boys. The charges include perjury, obstruction, endangering the welfare of children, failure to properly report suspected abuse and conspiracy. Those charges include allegations of hiding evidence from investigators and lying to the grand jury.

Sandusky was convicted last year of 45 counts of child sexual abuse on 10 boys but maintains his innocence and is appealing a 30- to 60-year state prison term.

Wenner called it "a tragic day for Penn State University to say the least."

The Penn State officials have stated their innocence, claiming they were never aware that an allegation at the time involved anything of a sexual nature. They say they had believed that Sandusky and the boy, known in court papers as Victim 2, were engaged in nothing more than horseplay in a university locker room shower earlier that month.