Former Penn State President Graham Spanier‘s legal team released a statement after he was charged in connection with his involvement in the Jerry Sandusky child sexual abuse scandal.
On Thursday, Spanier was formally charged by the Attorney General’s Office for the first time. Former Penn State athletic director Tim Curley and former Penn State vice president Gary Schultz had charges added to their criminal case.
Curley, Schultz and Spanier are each charged with perjury, endangering the welfare of children, failure to report, criminal conspiracy and obstruction of justice. They are expected to be arraigned at 2 p.m. in Harrisburg on Friday.
Spanier’s legal team released a statement on his behalf following Attorney General Linda Kelly‘s press conference held at noon in Harrisburg.
“Today’s Presentment is the latest desperate act by Governor Tom Corbett to cover up and divert attention away from the fact that he failed to warn the Penn State community about the suspicions surrounding Jerry Sandusky, and instead knowingly allowed a child predator to roam free in Pennsylvania. Its timing speaks volumes. These charges are the work of a vindictive and politically motivated Governor working through an un-elected attorney general, Linda Kelly, whom he appointed to do his bidding and who will be a lame duck five days from now.
“There is no factual basis to support these charges, which may explain why the Attorney General and her staff have steadfastly refused – for a full year – to meet with Dr. Spanier or his lawyers to discuss this matter despite repeated attempts to do so, or to accept Dr. Spanier’s offer to appear before the grand jury again to clarify any misconceptions.
“From late 2008 through November of 2011, as Pennsylvania’s Attorney General, Tom Corbett clearly knew about the allegations against Jerry Sandusky and yet failed to act. And this failure allowed Sandusky to continue to harm children for nearly three years after he could have and should have been warned, stopped or indicted. The Governor’s legally indefensible explanations, repeated by Attorney General Kelly at her news conference today – that he couldn’t expose Sandusky for fear of compromising an ongoing grand jury investigation or that he needed more evidence – are patently absurd.
“And so, on the one hand, Corbett had access to detailed allegations about Sandusky’s child abuse and, as the chief law enforcement officer for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, allowed it to continue. On the other, Dr. Spanier was not privy to any details about a 1998 investigation that actually exonerated Sandusky and then, in 2001, was told only about an incident characterized as “horseplay”.
“Governor Corbett has made no secret of his personal hostility toward Dr. Spanier, as many witnesses will attest. He is now manipulating public officials and resources to settle a personal score.
“Linda Kelly’s willingness to continue this farce, on behalf of the politically motivated Governor who appointed her, apparently knows no bounds. She has already been put on notice by both candidates for Attorney General, one of whom will replace her, that they intend to review her investigation thoroughly. For her to deny, as she did a few minutes ago, that politics played no role in these charges being made five days before an election, is patently false.
“Graham Spanier has committed no crime and looks forward to the opportunity to clear his good name and well-earned national reputation for integrity. This Presentment is a politically motivated frame-up of an innocent man. And if these charges ever come to trial, we will prove it.
“The people of this Commonwealth, and the next Attorney General, should be outraged by this blatantly political, transparently vindictive, last-minute act of cowardice and desperation.”
