Lawyer: Ex-PSU prez was fibbing

HARRISBURG

- Former Penn State general counsel Cynthia Baldwin said in grand-jury testimony released yesterday that former university president Graham Spanier made a series of lies and misleading statements before and after Jerry Sandusky was arrested.

The documents include testimony from a year ago in which Baldwin directly contradicted a statement made by Spanier to a reporter that he first learned the investigation involved allegations of sexual abuse against Sandusky when the former assistant football coach was charged in November 2011.

Baldwin told the grand jury that "of course he knew," and she believed "that he is not a person of integrity."

Spanier lawyer Liz Ainslie said the documents do not amount to evidence against him.

"A criminal charge cannot under the law be brought against an individual without evidence," Ainslie said. "What I have read is not evidence, it's conclusions that were fed to Cynthia Baldwin by the prosecutor."

The records also indicate that Baldwin told the grand-jury judge she represented the university when Spanier testified before the grand jury in April 2011, but did not contradict Spanier when he soon after identified her as his lawyer.

Questions about who she represented when Spanier and two other defendants appeared before the grand jury have delayed their trial on charges they covered up complaints about Sandusky.

Court officials said yesterday that additional documents the presiding judge has unsealed would be posted online in the coming days, perhaps as early as today.

Spanier, former athletic director Tim Curley and former vice president Gary Schultz face charges of perjury, obstruction, conspiracy, child endangerment and failure to properly report suspected child abuse.