Convicted Pedophile Jerry Sandusky Entitled To Pension According To Court Ruling

Former football coach and convicted child molester, Jerry Sandusky, should receive his pension from Penn State, according to a court ruling. Sandusky was sentenced three years ago, but his pension isn’t connected to his crimes, the court noted.

Despite being a convicted child molester, Jerry Sandusky is entitled to his $4,900 per month pension from Penn State, according to the Commonwealth Court panel. It said the state must restore the pension of the former Penn State University (PSU) assistant football coach. The disgraced coach’s monthly pension was suspended right after he was convicted of child molestation charges. However, the court ruled in favor of Sandusky, categorically noting that Sandusky wasn’t a Penn State employee when he committed his crimes. In other words, since Sandusky wasn’t an employee of the state, he is entitled to whatever benefits the state owes him.

The Commonwealth Court panel ruled unanimously that the State Employees’ Retirement Board wrongly concluded Sandusky was a Penn State employee when he committed the crimes, reported MSN. This technicality matters because it was used as the basis for suspending Sandusky’s pension. In his legal brief on the ruling, Judge Dan Pellegrini said,

“The board conflated the requirements that Mr. Sandusky engage in `work relating to’ PSU and that he engage in that work `for’ PSU. Mr. Sandusky’s performance of services that benefited PSU does not render him a PSU employee.”

What the court meant was that the State Employees’ Retirement Board made a gross error by claiming that Jerry Sandusky was a Penn State employee at the time he sexually abused 10 children, which wasn’t factually correct. Incidentally, Sandusky ceased to be a PSU employee in 1999. The sex abuse convictions stem from when he operated a non-profit named The Second Mile at PSU, reported the Examiner.

Essentially, the court affirmed the loophole in Sandusky’s terms of employment with Penn State. When he was operating The Second Mile, a nonprofit organization for underprivileged youth which offered help to at-risk children and support for their parents, Sandusky was engaged in work relating to Penn State, but he wasn’t working for Penn State. Though the state might have benefited from the program and from Sandusky’s efforts, Sandusky wasn’t working for Penn State, noted the court.

Interestingly, while the court might have harped on the technicality, Sandusky liberally used PSU facilities to operate The Second Mile. In fact, it was through this otherwise noble program that Sandusky targeted young and vulnerable men. It was proven in court that Jerry Sandusky abused the children at multiple places on the premises of PSU. Court documents mention Sandusky abused young men in his office, in locker rooms, and even in the showers at Penn State.

Hence, when Jerry Sandusky was sentenced to 30 to 60 years in prison for sexually abusing 10 children, Penn State stopped his pension checks. Then 68-years-old, Sandusky had already collected a $148,000 lump sum payment upon retirement in 1999 and had been receiving monthly pension payments of $4,900.

The board ceased sending payments in October 2012, on the basis of a provision in the Pennsylvania Pension Forfeiture Act that applies to “crimes related to public office or public employment,” reported USA Today. Since Sandusky was convicted of indecent assault and involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, the state made him forfeit his pension.

Sandusky had been fighting to reinstate his pension for the last three years. Now, the court has mandated that the state should pay Sandusky the entire pending amount and the accrued interest. It is quite likely that Penn State will appeal to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

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