Penn State president to testify in Sandusky case

HARRISBURG - Pennsylvania State University president Rodney Erickson received a subpoena last week to testify regarding the investigation into former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, the university said Monday.

It was not immediately clear what Erickson's testimony would focus on, and university spokeswoman Lisa Powers declined to provide a copy of the subpoena, first disclosed by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Erickson's "attorney is discussing with the Attorney General's Office various aspects of the subpoena, including the actual date of testimony," Powers said. "President Erickson intends to fully cooperate and answer all questions truthfully."

A spokesman for the Attorney General's Office declined to comment.

Penn State said in February it had received a subpoena from the U.S. Attorney's Office in Harrisburg asking for records of payments trustees made to the school or to third parties on the school's behalf, among other things.

That subpoena told Penn State chief counsel Cynthia Baldwin to preserve all university records and e-mails, including board and executive-session minutes, disclosure reports, and computer hard drives. It sought all Sandusky-related records and the hard drives of computers assigned to former university president Graham B. Spanier, former vice president Gary Schultz, and athletic director Tim Curley.

Sandusky, 68, is scheduled to go on trial in June on 52 criminal counts involving alleged child sexual abuse of 10 boys over 15 years. He has repeatedly denied the allegations, which include claims that he sexually assaulted children in his home and in university athletic facilities.

Curley, on leave, and Schultz, now retired, also await trial on charges of lying to the grand jury investigating Sandusky and of not properly reporting suspected child abuse. They deny those allegations.