Skip to content
Link copied to clipboard

Report: McQueary said Paterno told him of 2nd Sandusky abuse allegation

Mike McCreary's revelation to Joe Paterno that he'd witnessed Jerry Sandusky in "an extreme sexual act" with a boy was "the second complaint of this nature" he'd received, according to a CNN report.

Penn State coach Joe Paterno walks the field before a 2004 game against Michigan State in State College, Pa. Paterno died in 2012.
Penn State coach Joe Paterno walks the field before a 2004 game against Michigan State in State College, Pa. Paterno died in 2012.Read moreAP PHOTO/CAROLYN KASTER

A state police report has surfaced suggesting legendary Pennsylvania State University football coach Joe Paterno had heard at least one other allegation that assistant coach Jerry Sandusky was sexually abusing young boys prior to a 2001 complaint Paterno had admitted receiving, CNN reported Saturday.

According to CNN, the report describes a conversation in 2001 between Paterno and Mike McQueary, a Penn State assistant coach and star witness in the case who testified that he saw Sandusky, the former assistant football coach, engaged in "an extreme sexual act" with a young boy in a university locker-room shower.

Based on an account from McQueary, the report alleges that Paterno said it was the "second complaint of this nature" he had received about Sandusky — but the two never talked about the other complaint. McQueary allegedly told Paterno about what he had seen the day after it occurred. However, the police report was not written until after Sandusky was arrested in 2011, according to CNN.

The state police had no comment Saturday.

Last year, unsealed court records revealed that one accuser said he told Paterno about locker-room abuse in 1976. The records showed four accusers in total claimed that university officials or employees saw or were told of sex abuse by Sandusky as early as the 1970s or '80s.

Paterno died of cancer in January 2012, having been fired from his coaching position and having told a grand jury and issuing a statement one week before his death saying he was unaware of Sandusky's abusive conduct prior to the 2001 shower incident McQueary had told him about. Relatives and supporters of Paterno have continued to deny any claims that he had prior knowledge of sexual abuse by Sandusky.

In June 2012, Sandusky was convicted of 45 counts of sexual abuse involving 10 boys and was sentenced to 30 to 60 years in prison. An appeal is ongoing.

This past June, former Penn State president Graham B. Spanier and two other former aides were sentenced to prison for failing to report Sandusky's behavior. Last week, Penn State — which has paid $93 million to settle claims from 32 accusers — signaled it may sue Sandusky's former children's charity, Second Mile, potentially a bid to make up some of the school's costs in response to the scandal.