3 ex-Penn State officials to stand trial

HARRISBURG, Pa. -- Penn State's ex-president and two former top school administrators were ordered yesterday to stand trial on charges accusing them of a cover-up in the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal.

Prosecutors showed enough evidence during a two-day preliminary hearing to warrant a trial for ex-president Graham Spanier, former vice president Gary Schultz and ex-athletic director Tim Curley, District Judge William Wenner concluded.

Wenner called it "a tragic day for Penn State University."

The men engaged in a "conspiracy of silence," the lead state prosecutor, Bruce Beemer, said during his closing argument.

They covered up their failure to tell police about a 2001 allegation that Sandusky was molesting a boy in a university locker room shower, even after they were aware that police investigated complaints about Sandusky showering with boys in 1998, Beemer said.

The key testimony centered on a series of emails among the three defendants that discussed the 1998 and 2001 cases and the testimony of Mike McQueary, a former team assistant and quarterback who said he had immediately told Schultz, Curley and the late longtime football coach Joe Paterno that he had seen Sandusky molesting a boy in the shower in 2001.

Sandusky, a defensive coordinator under Paterno until he retired in 1999, was convicted last year of 45 counts of child sexual abuse. He maintains his innocence and is appealing a 30- to 60-year state prison term.

The three were charged with perjury, obstruction, endangering the welfare of children, failure to properly report suspected abuse and conspiracy.

The charges include allegations of hiding evidence from investigators and lying to the grand jury.