Friday afternoon, the testimony Joe Paterno made before a grand jury in January was entered into the record in a hearing for former Penn St. officials Tim Curley and Gary Schultz, reports Sara Ganim of The Patriot-News. Paterno, 84, was unable to take the stand Friday because of physical ailments stemming from a fall he suffered in his home, so his earlier testimony was used instead.
Curley, the former athletic director, and Schultz, the former vice president, are charged with perjury for their testimony regarding a rape allegedly committed by Jerry Sandusky, the longime Penn State assistant coach accused of multiple child sex crimes, some perpetrated on the Penn State campus.
In Paterno’s testimony, which lasted approximately six minutes, the former head football coach said Mike McQueary, then a graduate assistant with the football program, telephoned him on a Saturday morning—Paterno could not recall the year—and said he’d seen Sandusky “fondling a young boy” in the shower facility of Lasch Building.
“It was of a sexual nature,” Paterno said of the fondling McQueary mentioned. “I’m not sure exactly what it was. I didn’t push Mike … because he was obviously very upset.”
Paterno then went on to say he told McQueary he would notify the appropriate parties at Penn State about what McQueary witnessed, meaning Curley. The coach said he could not remember what year these phone calls took place, but did remember it was a Saturday. As Paterno recalled, he did not telephone Curley immediately because he did not want to disturb him during the weekend.