After being charged with 40 counts of sexually abusing male minors spanning over the course of fifteen years, former Pennsylvania State University assistant coach Jerry Sandusky was indicted on Nov. 4, and arrested the day after due to the results of an investigation on him that began in 1998, according to The Huffington Post.
Sandusky has been accused of sexual assault on 10 different young males. He allegedly met his victims through The Second Mile, a charity he founded in 1977 to help “at-risk children,” according to The Associated Press.
“The contact with Sandusky allegedly fit a pattern of ‘grooming’ victims. Beginning with outings to football games and gifts; they later included physical contact that escalated to sexual assaults,” Attorney General Linda Kelly said in a statement.
In March 2002, graduate student Mike McQueary reported seeing Sandusky sexually assault a young boy and called Head Coach Joe Paterno the next day to report the incident.
Paterno testified to Penn State Athletic Director Tim Curley to relate the information. However, the incident was not reported further to any “law enforcement or child protective agency,” according to the Huffington Post.
The charges against Sandusky carry “a combined maximum sentence of 156 years,” according to The Huffington Post. Sandusky was arrested again on Dec. 7 and held a bail of $250,000.
The next day, Sandusky posted bail and was released from jail with an electronic monitoring device, according to the Huffington Post.
Since the scandal, Penn State has fired Paterno and accepted President Graham Spanier’s resignation, according to the Associated Press.
“Athletic Director Tim Curley has been placed on administrative leave, and Vice President Gary Schultz, who was in charge of the university’s police department, has stepped down,” according to the Associated Press.
Paterno’s firing sparked thousands of protests from the University students the following day.
Both Sandusky and his wife, Dottie Sandusky, insist that he is innocent. Sandusky has vowed to fight the cases against him, and has said in interviews with both NBC and The New York Times that he has showered and horsed around with the boys but never sexually abused them, according to the AP.
Sandusky was scheduled to appear in court on Nov. 6, but the trial was moved to Dec. 7.
This is but one of the several collegiate scandals that have come to light in recent weeks.
Syracuse University fired associate head coach Bernie Fine “after multiple allegations of sexually abusing young boys dating back to the 1970s became public,” according to The Boston Herald.
Fine has been on “administrative leave” since Nov. 7 when two former Syracuse ball boys publically accused Fine on ESPN of sexual abuse in the 1980s and 90s.
“Fine’s firing came on the same day the Syracuse Post-Standard reported that a 23-year-old from Lewiston, Maine, recently told police he was molested by Fine in a Pittsburgh hotel room in 2002,” according to Newsday.
In addition to that, former Miami Booster Nevin Shapiro told Yahoo! Sports that he “provided extra benefits to 72 of the university’s football players and other athletes between 2002 and 2010,” according to The Huffington Post.
The list of such benefits includes “nightclub outings, sex parties, cars . . . yacht trips, jewelry, televisions and other gifts . . . restaurant meals and in one case, an abortion for a woman impregnated by a player,” according to The Huffington Post.
Players that Shapiro illegally gave benefits to include Vince Wilfork, Jon Beason, Antrel Rolle, Devin Hester, Willis McGahee and the late Sean Taylor.
Shapiro has been sentenced 20 years in prison for conducting a $930 million Ponzi scheme. Additionally, he has been ordered to pay $82 million in restitution to investors, according to The Huffington Post.
Grace Kim is Online Chief for The Patriot and jcpatriot.com.