Penn State Nittany Lions

Ex-Penn State president Graham Spanier found guilty of child endangerment

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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SI Wire/Sports Illustrated

Former Penn State president Graham Spanier was found guilty on one count of child endangerment, not guilty on a second count and not guilty of conspiracy for his role in the Jerry Sandusky sexual abuse scandal.

Spanier showed no emotion when the verdict was read after 13 hours of deliberations.

The trial centered on how Spanier, 68, and two other university leaders handled a complaint by a graduate assistant who said he reported seeing Sandusky sexually molesting a boy in a team shower in 2001. They told Sandusky he could not bring children onto the campus anymore but did not report the matter to police or child welfare authorities.

Sandusky was not arrested until 2011 after an anonymous tip led prosecutors to investigate the shower incident. He was convicted the next year of sexually abusing 10 boys and is serving a decades-long prison sentence.

Graham Spanier

Four of the eight young men testifying at Sandusky's trial said they were abused after 2001.

"Evil in the form of Jerry Sandusky was allowed to run wild," Deputy Attorney General Patrick Schulte told the jury.

The prosecution team argued that Spanier, former athletic director Tim Curley and former vice president Gary Schultz acted in a manner to preserve the university and their own reputations at the expense of the child's well-being.

Spanier did not testify in the trial. Curley and Schultz reached plea deals to a misdemeanor account of child endangerment and testified against Spanier.

Spanier stepped down as president in 2011 when Sandusky was charged with child molestation. Sandusky has been in prison since his conviction in 2012. Head coach Joe Paterno was fired in the aftermath of the abuse scandal and died of cancer in early 2012.

The university has paid more than $90 million to settle civil claims.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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