Penn State University has hired the large PIttsburgh-based law firm of Reed Smith to represent them in the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse scandal. With three current and former employees facing criminal charges, and civil suits reportedly on the horizon, it's still unclear if Reed Smith has been hired to handle the specific criminal charges or to provide blanket counsel for all issues, criminal and civil, arising out of the scandal.
Reed Smith spokeswoman Jamie Moss said Thursday that the firm will be working on issues related to the arrest of Jerry Sandusky, the former assistant football coach accused of sexual abuse involving eight boys over 15 years, as well as administrators Tim Curley and Gary Schultz, who are charged with not properly alerting authorities to suspected abuse and perjury. Moss declined to say whether Reed Smith, which lists more than 1,700 lawyers on its website, would be focusing on criminal or civil matters.
In addition to hiring counsel, PSU also stated on Thursday that its continued search for records or documentation to support Mike McQueary's utterance on CBS that he had notified campus police that he had witnessed Sandusky raping a boy in the showers of the Lasch building. There is still no record of a report made by McQueary.
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