Penn State Ex-President Graham Spanier Expected To Face Charges In Sandusky Coverup

Penn State ex-president Graham Spanier will face charges for following the Jerry Sandusky child abuse scandal, the state’s attorney general is expected to reveal at a conference later today.

Graham Spanier was forced to resign as the Sandusky child abuse scandal broke at Penn State, and, later today, Pennsylvania State Attorney General Linda Kelly and state Police Commissioner Frank Noonan have scheduled a press conference during which it is expected that charges against the former head of Penn State will be announced.

Charges against Spanier and other top officials at Penn State stem from a report into the scandal early this year from FBI director Louis Freeh in which evidence was uncovered suggesting officials conspired to not notify authorities of the abuse allegations. NBC reports:

“The charges against [Spanier, ex-athletic director Tim Curley and ex-vice president Gary Schultz] are based in part on evidence uncovered in a report last summer by former FBI director Louis Freeh. These included emails in which the ex-officials appeared to agree not to report to child welfare authorities a 2001 allegation by former graduate assistant Mike McQueary that he saw Sandusky sexually abusing a young boy in the Penn State shower room.”

NBC quotes an email from Freeh’s report into the Penn State child abuse scandal in which Spanier is said to have written in an email:

“This approach [of talking to Sandusky about receiving professional help] is acceptable to me … The only downside for us if the message isnt ‘heard’ and acted upon, and we then become vulnerable for not having reported it. But that can be assessed down the road. The approach you outline and a reasonable way to proceed.”

A lawyer for Spanier has called the Freeh report a “blundering and indefensible indictment,” and lawyers for the former Penn State president plan to make a statement later today.