Former Penn State president gets jail time in Paterno scandal

Prosecutors urged a judge to sentence Pennsylvania State University's former president to jail on Friday for his role in covering child sex abuse by Jerry Sandusky, a former assistant football coach convicted of molesting 10 boys.

In a court filing unsealed Thursday, the Pennsylvania attorney general's office also assails two one-time Penn State administrators for their testimony in Spanier's March trial after they pleaded guilty in the case. Spanier's attorneys have said they plan to appeal his conviction. Prosecutors with the state Attorney General's Office contended that he chose to bury a claim that Sandusky had been seen showering with a boy one night in a campus locker room in 2001, three years after police investigated a similar allegation against the assistant football coach.

Curley, Schultz and Spanier denied they were told the encounter in the shower was sexual in nature. Sandusky was found guilty the next year of sexually abusing 10 boys and is serving a prison sentence of 30 to 60 years while he appeals his conviction.

It has been a stunning downfall for Spanier, 68, who had spoken publicly about his own history of being abused as a child by his father, who beat him severely.

Penn State head football coach Joe Paterno, right, poses with his defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky, left, during a Penn State Media Day event in State College, Pa., on August 6, 1999. "Most importantly I'm sorry to the men, once young now older, who were victimized by Jerry Sandusky.I deeply regret that I didn't intervene more forcefully". "All three ignored the opportunity to put an end to [Sandusky's] crimes when they had a chance to do so".

"These men are good people who made a bad mistake", Boccabella said.

"Why no one made a call to the police or the Department of Public Welfare is beyond me", the judge said. "That is inexcusable", she said. From his ouster after Sandusky's arrest in late 2011 through his trial this spring, the former president insisted he was innocent and didn't realize that Sandusky, the longtime assistant to head football coach Joe Paterno, was a threat to children.

The university has paid tens of millions of dollars to settle lawsuits filed by Sandusky's victims, and the total could eventually exceed $100 million. Both also were fined and ordered to perform community service.

Gary Schultz, formerly a senior vice president of the university, and Tim Curley, a former athletic director, were charged along with Spanier.

Former Penn State President Graham Spanier, center, arrives for his sentencing hearing at the Dauphin County Courthouse in Harrisburg, Pa., Friday, June 2, 2017.

After the character witnesses had finished speaking and the defendants had repeatedly expressed their remorse, Boccabella sentenced all three of them to short prison terms.