Penn State whistle-blower case tied to Sandusky set to begin Monday

To many, Mike McQueary was a hero - the lone member of the Pennsylvania State University athletics staff to speak up in a bid to stop Jerry Sandusky's sexual abuse of children.

Yet within pockets of Nittany Lion fandom, he remains a pariah - the assistant coach whose testimony against the serial predator put his entire community on trial and helped tarnish the reputation of its iconic coach, Joe Paterno.

Now, five years after McQueary's turn as a star witness against Sandusky and three school administrators accused of covering up his crimes, the 6-foot-5 former quarterback once known as "Big Red" wants a Centre County jury to reward him for his decision to speak out.

A panel of nine women and three men - including two Penn State employees - was selected last week to begin weighing McQueary's whistle-blower claims against the university. Opening arguments are scheduled to begin Monday in Bellefonte, Centre County.

In his lawsuit, McQueary contends that the school maligned his credibility and forced him from his $104,000-a-year coaching job after he accused three Penn State administrators of failing to tell police what he first told them in 2001: that he saw Sandusky sexually assault a boy in a campus locker room shower.

The case is just one of the dozens of legal claims filed against Penn State in the wake of Sandusky's crimes and the tumult that has plagued the university in the years since. But if the trial goes forward Monday as scheduled - settlement negotiations continued late last week - it would be the first to actually reach a jury.

It also could offer a vivid window into the still rippling impact the Sandusky scandal has had on one of its central figures.

According to court filings, McQueary has been unable to find a new coaching job since the university let him go in 2012. His wife has left him and the now 42-year-old has been forced to move back in with his parents in his childhood home in State College as he waits in limbo to see whether he will be called for another star turn on the witness stand.

His testimony is expected to be central in the state's child-endangerment case against former university president Graham B. Spanier, athletic director Tim Curley, and vice president Gary Schultz for allegedly failing to act on McQueary's allegations 15 years ago.

In the meantime, his lawyer Elliot Strokoff has said in court filings, Penn State's response to McQueary's association with the Sandusky case "irreparably harmed [his] reputation for honesty and integrity and . . . [his] ability to earn a living, in his chosen profession of coaching football."

So far, Penn State has appeared eager to keep other Sandusky-related claims out of a courtroom.

As of earlier this year, it had paid $92 million to 32 Sandusky accusers. It also settled a suit last month with its insurer over who would cover the cost of those payouts.

But lawyers for Penn State have pushed back against McQueary's demand for $4 million in damages - his estimate for how much he would have earned had his coaching career not come to an early and abrupt end.

They say that his departure from the coaching staff had nothing to do with Sandusky and maintain that then-head coach Bill O'Brien simply chose not to renew McQueary's contract along with others in Paterno's inner circle after O'Brien took over the program in 2012.

"It is common practice for incoming head coaches to select their own coaching staff," university lawyers have argued in their own filings with the court.

Regardless of the reason, McQueary's dismissal ended what appeared to have been a promising coaching career. A homegrown star quarterback for the Nittany Lions between 1994 and 1997, he joined Paterno's staff as a graduate assistant in 2000 and later was named a full-time receivers coach.

It was in that first job that he said he witnessed the sexual encounter that upended his life for good. As McQueary has described it, he walked into a Penn State locker room in 2001 and saw Sandusky in a shower stall assaulting a boy who appeared to be about 10 years old.

McQueary said he informed Paterno the next day, and Curley and Schultz later assured him that they would handle the matter. His claims were never reported to police.

His testimony before a grand jury 10 years later helped prosecutors build a case against Sandusky and set off a scandal that unfolded with breathtaking speed.

Within a year, Sandusky was arrested, Paterno and Spanier were fired, Paterno died, Sandusky was convicted and former FBI Director Louis Freeh issued his damning report criticizing Paterno and Spanier for failing to act on signs of Sandusky's predatory behavior.

But that pace since has slowed to a slog. Progress in McQueary's suit, like some other related claims filed against the university, had ground to a near standstill while courts across the state awaited the outcome of the case against Spanier, Curley and Schultz.

This summer, Thomas Gavin, the senior judge from Chester County chosen to preside over the whistle-blower case, finally gave up on waiting.

He cleared McQueary's suit for trial, citing the ongoing economic harm the coach had suffered due to the long delay.

"I question whether this is a reflection on his coaching skills or due to the notoriety surrounding him resulting from his involvement in the Sandusky case," the judge wrote in an August opinion. "In either event, he has no job. . . . The time has come to resolve this case."

To win his case, McQueary must prove he was treated differently from other members of Paterno's staff who weren't retained by O'Brien.

He was placed on paid leave within days of Sandusky's arrest. Penn State officials cited security concerns in the emotionally charged weeks after Paterno's firing.

But McQueary was never invited back to Beaver Stadium before his contract expired in 2012.

He claims that, unlike others let go by O'Brien, he was never offered the chance to interview with the new head coach. What's more, he was forced to shoulder his own legal bills as a witness in the Sandusky case, while Spanier, Curley, Schultz and others had theirs covered by the university.

He also alleges that Spanier defamed him in a November 2011 statement expressing support for Curley and Schultz. In it, the former Penn State president said he was confident the allegations against his colleagues were "groundless" and that they "conducted themselves professionally and appropriately."

The statement did not mention McQueary by name, but he considered it an attack on his character and an attempt to undermine his credibility as a witness. Penn State maintains that the statement had nothing to do with McQueary and was merely Spanier's opinion.

As for his job, the university says it wasn't required to provide a reason for not renewing McQueary's contract and still it gave him an 18-month severance package it was under no obligation to pay.

The trial is expected to last up to two weeks.

jroebuck@phillynews.com

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