Spanier Is Found Guilty of Child Endangerment in Sandusky Sex-Abuse Case

Graham B. Spanier, the former president of Pennsylvania State University, was found guilty on Friday of one misdemeanor count of endangering the welfare of children, not guilty on another count of a similar charge, and not guilty on one count of criminal conspiracy for his role in the Jerry Sandusky sex-abuse scandal.

The charge on which Mr. Spanier was convicted, which can be a felony, was graded a misdemeanor because the jury did not find that the endangerment represented a pattern of conduct by the former president.

Penn State Scandal

This selection of articles from The Chronicle’s archives looks back on the Jerry Sandusky scandal and its fallout at Pennsylvania State University.

• With Last-Minute Ruling, Graham Spanier Evades Jumpsuit and ‘Hard Cell’
• Seeking Closure in Verdict, Penn State Finds More Discord
• Spanier’s Conviction Highlights Lessons of Sandusky Scandal

The verdict was handed down five years after Mr. Sandusky, a former Penn State assistant football coach, was convicted on 45 counts related to child molestation. The scandal roiled Penn State and tarnished the reputation of Mr. Spanier himself, who has firmly denied that he helped conceal the crimes.

But this week in Dauphin County Court, in Harrisburg, Pa., Mr. Spanier went before a jury, facing charges with a maximum penalty on each of seven years in prison and a $15,000 fine. He did not testify.

Over the span of four days, prosecutors put Mr. Spanier’s leadership, and how he worked to protect the university’s brand, on trial. The case depended on whether the former president had conspired with Timothy M. Curley, Penn State’s former athletics director, and Gary C. Schultz, a former senior vice president for finance and business, to cover up Mr. Sandusky’s abuse.

Both Mr. Curley and Mr. Schultz, who pleaded guilty before the trial to misdemeanor charges of endangering the welfare of children, testified in court on Wednesday. When called to the witness stand by prosecutors, both men expressed remorse for not doing more after hearing reports in 2001 that Mr. Sandusky had showered with a boy.

Prosecutors used Mr. Curley’s and Mr. Schultz’s testimony to argue that Penn State administrators had ignored or missed signs that Mr. Sandusky was a serial predator, allowing him to continue to molest children.

In 2001, Mr. Spanier and his lieutenants decided not to report Mr. Sandusky’s abuse to authorities, instead reporting it to Second Mile, a charity founded by Mr. Sandusky to serve underprivileged youth in Pennsylvania and an organization where he groomed his victims. Prosecutors presented a now-infamous email from 2001 in which Mr. Spanier agreed to a plan to not tell authorities about the shower incident. The three men instead wrote that they would confront Mr. Sandusky about the incident and report it to the charity.

Mr. Spanier’s lawyers called no witnesses in his defense. They argued that the men had not ignored reports of Mr. Sandusky’s abuse and had taken action. The lawyers also said that Mr. Spanier had not knowingly conspired to conceal Mr. Sandusky’s crimes.

In a statement issued after the verdict, Penn State wrote that its Board of Trustees took action following the Sandusky revelations and changed the university’s leadership, instructing new administrators to carry out new policies.

“The university launched a series of new initiatives with the sense of urgency demanded by the board, while at the same time waiting for the justice system to bring a measure of resolution to the criminal cases that emerged,” the statement says. “With today’s decision, we have that closure.”

Clarification (3/24/2017, 4:45 p.m.): A previous version of this article omitted that the charge on which Mr. Spanier was found guilty was a misdemeanor.

Fernanda Zamudio-Suaréz is a web writer. Follow her on Twitter @FernandaZamudio, or email her at fzamudiosuarez@chronicle.com.