Joe Paterno might have faced charges

Associated Press / Saturday, July 14, 2012

Harrisburg, Pa. -- If he were alive, Joe Paterno could be looking at charges such as child endangerment, perjury and conspiracy.

Legal experts said evidence in the Penn State investigative report released Thursday suggests that Paterno may have misled a grand jury when asked when he first heard about Jerry Sandusky's misconduct, and shows that Paterno and other university officials put boys in danger by failing to report sexual abuse allegations against Sandusky.

Duquesne law professor Wes Oliver said the report by former FBI Director Louis Freeh reads like a prosecution case for a child endangerment charge against Paterno, then-President Graham Spanier, athletic director Tim Curley and now-retired Vice President Gary Schultz. Oliver noted that a top official in the Philadelphia Archdiocese was convicted of that charge in June for allowing a suspected pedophile priest to be around children.

"If you look at what happened here, it's very clear that they were aware that they had a pedophile on their campus," Oliver said.

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