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The former assistant coach who was a key witness in the Sandusky trial says
he has been defamed and treated with discrimination by the university.
Former Penn State assistant football coach Mike McQueary, a key witness in
the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse trial in June, has filed a civil suit
against the university. He is seeking at least $4 million for damages and
lost future earnings.
In the suit, filed Tuesday at the Centre County Courthouse in Bellefonte, Pa
., the damages in question are described as “distress, anguish, humiliation
and embarrassment.”
McQueary was (and continues to be) something of a polarizing figure in what
became the worst scandal in the history of college athletics. Outside of the
victims, he was the only eyewitness to alleged sexual abuse who testified
against Sandusky. A former PSU football coach himself, Sandusky was
convicted on 45 counts of sex abuse against boys and will be sentenced next
Tuesday.
As a graduate assistant coach at Penn State in 2001, McQueary entered a
locker room in the Lasch Football Building on campus only to discover
Sandusky in the shower with a boy. Nobody — not even Sandusky — has
disputed that.
However, McQueary testified that Sandusky and the boy were having sex, and
that he reported the incident to his supervisor — head football coach Joe
Paterno — the next day. He said he told athletic director Tim Curley and
school vice president Gary Schultz of the incident about 10 days later.
None of the school officials reported the incident to the police.
Before dying of lung cancer in January, Paterno admitted that McQueary told
him something “extremely sexual in nature” happened between Sandusky and
the boy.
Curley and Schultz, who are both facing perjury charges for allegedly lying
to the grand jury investigating the Sandusky case, claim McQueary never told
them anything sexual happened between Sandusky and the boy.
McQueary became a full-time coach at Penn State in 2004. He never discussed
the matter with law enforcement officials until investigators from the
Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office approached him in November of 2010.
He later testified before the grand jury.
When Sandusky was charged with dozens of counts of child sex abuse last
November, the school's board of trustees moved quickly to fire Paterno and
school president Graham Spanier. Curley and Schultz were both forced from
their jobs, as well. The university sanctioned Freeh Report into the
incident accused the four men of orchestrating a cover-up.
McQueary, meanwhile, was put on administrative leave, with pay. His contract
with the university expired June 30 and was not renewed.
In the suit, McQueary contends that his “employment was terminated in a
discriminatory fashion … and that his employment was terminated by the
Defendant because of his … cooperation with investigators for the
Pennsylvania Attorney General.”
McQueary also claims “discriminatory treatment” by Penn State has caused
him “much distress, anxiety and embarrassment.” Further, he says he has
been defamed by Curley and Schultz, as well as Spanier (who also denies
being told McQueary had seen Sandusky engaging in anything sexual with a boy
).
McQueary also argues that he has been “branded as being part of a cover-up,
which has caused irreparable harm to his ability to earn a living,
especially in his chosen profession of coaching football.”
The suit says McQueary was making $140,000 plus benefits during his final
season as a coach at Penn State. He estimated his future earnings for the
next 25 years to be at least $4 million.
McQueary also takes exception that Penn State has not paid any of the legal
fees he has incurred, even though it is paying for the defense of Curley and
Schultz. He also said the school did not begin paying him the severance
package he was due -- which included 18 months of salary -- until more than
two months after his contract was not renewed. |
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