Two charged in connection with Penn State sex-abuse scandal will face judge next month

Two men charged in connection with the Pennsylvania State University child sex-abuse scandal will face a judge next month.

The school’s former athletic director, Tim Curley, and the former top administrator, Gary Schultz, will appear for a preliminary hearing before Magisterial District Judge William C. Wenner at the Dauphin County Courthouse on Dec. 16 at 9 a.m., according to information found on the county website.

The two men face perjury charges in connection with the molestation case against former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, who was named in a 40-count grand jury presentment handed up earlier this month.

Sandusky, 67, is being charged with sexually abusing eight underage boys who he allegedly met at the Second Mile, a charity for underprivileged children he founded in the late 1970s. The alleged acts occurred in the late 1990s and during the past decade.

Sandusky retired from Penn State football in 1999, but remained a fixture around campus given his emeritus status.

Sandusky allegedly lured some of the young victims onto campus where he purportedly perpetuated various sexual acts against them.

The former defensive coordinator denied the most serious allegations of anal rape against him during an NBC television interview this month. He admitted to showering with a boy, for example, but denied having had sexual intercourse with him.

Curley, 57, was Penn State’s athletic director until he left his position following the sexual abuse scandal.

Schultz, 62, was the senior vice president for finance and business at the university, a position that included oversight of the school’s police department.

According to the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office, the grand jury determined that both Curley and Schultz had provided false testimony while discussing their response to the 2002 incident in which a young boy was allegedly sexually assaulted by Sandusky in the showers of the athletic facility on campus.

The grand jury determined that Curley perjured himself when he repeatedly denied having had knowledge of the Sandusky shower incident, the attorney general’s office stated.

Similarly, “assertions by Schultz that the allegations concerning Sandusky were ‘not that serious’ and that he and Curley ‘had no indication that a crime had occurred,’ were in direct contradiction to other testimony and constituted perjury,” the attorney general’s office stated prior.

In other news related to the Penn State scandal, it has been reported that two Pennsylvania lawyers have filed a complaint against the Second Mile charity organization on behalf of one of the alleged sex abuse victims whose tale was outlined in the grand jury report.

Attorneys Benjamin Andreozzi and Jeffrey Fritz filed the complaint last week on behalf of “Victim Four,” a male who is now 27, and met Sandusky about 15 years ago through the charitable organization, according to the Legal Intelligencer newspaper.

Andreozzi, whose website says his firm, Andreozzi & Associates, specializes in sexual abuse litigation, told the paper that his client, who is not being publicly named, had contact with Sandusky that was of a “sexual nature, completely inappropriate and severe sexual assault.”

“Victim Four” intends to testify during Sandusky’s preliminary hearing, which is scheduled for Dec. 7.

The Legal Intelligencer also reported that Andreozzi and Fritz have filed for injunctive relief to prevent the Second Mile from dissipating its assets. The paper said tax forms filed with the state have showed the organization to have a net worth of about $9 million.

The Penn State scandal, which has made national headlines, led to the ouster of both the school’s former president, Graham Spanier, and the university’s revered and longtime head football coach, Joe Paterno.