Ex-Penn State president, AD sentenced to two months in jail for child endangerment

Graham Spanier and two other Penn State officials will go to jail for their role in the Jerry Sandusky scandal.

Former Penn State president Graham Spanier and two other ex-university officials have been sentenced to two months in prison and an additional two months of house arrest for failing report allegations of child sexual abuse by Jerry Sandusky. 

Spanier, former athletic director Tim Curley and ex-senior vice president for finance and business Gary Schultz were sentenced by a judge Friday in Harrisburg, Pa. Spanier was convicted in March on one count of child endangerment. He was acquitted of a second child endangerment charge and of one count of conspiracy.

Whistleblowing ex-Nittany Lions assistant coach Mike McQueary told Curley and Schultz in 2001 that he had seen Sandusky raping a boy in a campus shower. In 2002, Curley and Schultz banned Sandusky from bringing boys onto the main Penn State campus, though he was allowed to operate a camp at a Penn State satellite campus. 

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Curley and Schultz accepted a plea deal to plead guilty to misdemeanor charges of endangering the welfare of children and testify against Spanier at his trial. Schultz testified that Spanier was made aware of McQueary’s report and the 1998 investigation against Sandusky. 

Sandusky was not indicted until 2011. He was convicted on 45 counts in 2012 and sentenced to up to 60 years in prison. 

Prosecutors recommended that Curley, who has been fighting lung cancer, be allowed to serve his entire sentence at home.