NBC NEWS: Former Penn State football assistant Mike McQueary on Tuesday filed a whistleblower lawsuit seeking $4 million from the university, claiming he was made a “scapegoat” for the university’s failures to rein in a coach accused of sexual assault.
McQueary is the staffer who said he witnessed assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky having sex with a boy in the locker room in 2001, and reported what he saw to head football coach Joe Paterno and other university officials. Other boys were assaulted on campus before Sandusky, 68, was found guilty in 2012 of 45 counts of child sexual abuse.
The lawsuit says McQueary is seeking $4 million. His base salary in 2011 was $140,400 plus bonuses and benefits, making his anticipated earnings over the next 25 years at least $4 million. McQueary says he was placed on administrative leave a week after a grand jury found that university officials made false statements about what McQueary had told them. Gary Schultz, a former senior vice president at Penn State, and Tim Curley, the former athletic coordinator, are accused of lying to a grand jury about what they knew of sex abuse allegations against Sandusky. The university has been paying the legal fees of other Penn State employees in the case, but not McQueary’s… (more)
EDITOR: Contrary to the above, McQueary told his father and a doctor friend the evening of the incident that he “heard”, not “saw” what might have been sexual abuse. McQueary’s story appears to have grown over the years. What difference does it make? It reflects on what he specifically told Coach Joe Paterno and Paterno’s and Penn State officials’ full understanding of the situation. There is a big difference between saying you heard what sounded suspicious and stating that you saw an act in progress.
