Penn State trustees sue to get Freeh report documents

Seven Pennsylvania State University trustees followed through Monday on a promise to take legal action to obtain documents from a report on former coach Jerry Sandusky's child sex abuse.

The trustees' petition, filed in Centre County, argues state law grants a nonprofit's board members access to any records reasonably related to the performance of their duties. The trustees argue the university was harmed by the report by former FBI Director Louis Freeh, which concluded that former administrators, including longtime head coach Joe Paterno, failed to act when they learned of Sandusky's abuses. The report also criticized Penn State's culture of reverence for the football program as a factor that insulated Sandusky. The petition described the report's conclusions as "subjective, hyperbolic, and sweeping."

The documents requested are being withheld to protect people who provided information to the Freeh report investigators with a promise of confidentiality, university president Eric Barron said in a statement Saturday.

- Jason Laughlin