Report: Joe Paterno May Have Known of Earlier Sandusky Abuse Claim

CNN obtained a police report claiming Paterno told Mike McQueary that his complaint against Sandusky was not the first of its kind.

A police report obtained by CNN suggests that the late former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno knew that Jerry Sandusky may have been molesting children years before Sandusky's arrest. 

The report says that when whistleblower and former Penn State assistant coach Mike McQueary told Paterno in 2001 that he'd witnessed Sandusky performing a lewd sexual act with a young boy, Paterno allegedly told McQueary that his was the second such claim against Sandusky. 

"Paterno, upon hearing the news, sat back in his chair with a dejected look on his face," the report states.

"Then he made the comment to McQueary this was the second complaint of this nature he had received about Sandusky." 

That contradicts Paterno's and his family's vehement denial—and Paterno's sworn testimony—that the coach knew of Sandusky's abuses before McQueary alerted him. 

Paterno coached Penn State for 45 years before his contract was terminated in November 2011. He died on Jan. 22, 2012 from complications from lung cancer. 

The Penn State child sex abuse case, which came to light in 2011, rocked the State College, Pa. campus and the rest of the world. Due to their failure to properly follow up on McQueary's accusations, university president Graham Spanier and athletic director Timothy Curley were fired.

Sandusky was convicted of using his charity, The Second Mile, to gain access to young boys whom he molested and raped. He was convicted of 45 chargers of sexual abuse in June 2012 and is currently serving a minimum of 30 years in prison. He has maintained his innocence throughout the entire process and has appealed his conviction.