Joe Paterno Hires Criminal Defense Lawyer J. Sedgwick Sollers
Penn State's Mike McQueary is latest coach put on leave.
Nov. 11, 2011— -- Legendary Penn State football coach Joe Paterno has retained a high profile criminal defense attorney in the wake of a child sex abuse scandal that has devastated the university this week.
Paterno's son, Scott Paterno, released a statement today confirming that he hired J. Sedgwick "Wick" Sollers, a Washington, D.C., based attorney who has represented former president George H.W. Bush in the past.
"My father's desire is for the truth to be uncovered and he will work with his lawyers to that end," Scott Paterno said in a statement.
Joe Paterno has not been charged with any crimes and prosecutors have said he is a not a target of their investigation into the alleged sex crimes of former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky.
Two of Paterno's supervisors, former Athletic Director Tim Curley and former Vice President of Finance Gary Schultz, have been charged with perjury and failing to report to police an alleged rape of a young child by Sandusky on school property in 2002.
Prosecutors have said the investigation is very active and ongoing.
Paterno was fired from his position Wednesday night. Former university president Graham Spanier, who was told that an incident of "horseplay" between Sandusky and a child occurred in the showers, was also fired from the university but has not been charged criminally.
Earlier today, McQueary, now an assistant coach on the Penn State football team, was removed from the coaching line-up for Saturday's game against Nebraska. He was placed today on administrative leave.
Interim coach Tom Bradley has insisted just a day earlier that McQueary would be involved in this weekend's game.
McQueary was a 28-year-old graduate assistant in the football department when he allegedly saw Sandusky sexually assaulting a boy about 10 in the locker room showers. He left the building and reported the incident to Paterno the next day.
Authorities said McQueary did what was required of him and he was not a target of the investigation.
Newly appointed Penn State President Rodney Erickson, however, placed McQueary on leave today saying that McQueary "couldn't function in his role under these circumstances."
Erickson said today that there are discussions about whether Curly should remain on administrative leave or be fired.
Since news of the scandal broke Saturday, all of the individuals named in the grand jury presentment as knowing about the sexual abuse but not reporting it to police have been relieved of their duties at the university.
Earlier in the day, Gov. Tom Corbett, who has been on campus attending Board of Trustees meetings, told students and reporters that there could be legal issues relating to McQueary's status as a whistle blower.
The new university president stressed that the climate of fear at the university would change immediately, so that no would one ever be afraid to report a crime again.
Sandusky Faces Charges in TexasA town in Texas is looking into bringing its own charges against Sandusky, the former Penn State assistant football coach charged with sexually abusing eight boys over 15 years on and around the Penn State campus.
The Penn State sex scandal continues to ripple through the campus at State College.
Pennsylvania's senators, Democrat Bob Casey and Republican Pat Toomey, have rescinded their endorsement of Paterno for the prestigious Presidential Medal of Freedom.
The board also appointed a committee to investigate how the alleged crimes were allowed to happen and go unreported to police for so long.
San Antonio police confirmed they are investigating the "possibility that an offense may have happened" while the Penn State team was in Texas for the Alamo Bowl in 1999.
In a grand jury presentment in Pennsylvania, a victim testifies that Sandusky took him to the bowl game in San Antonio and, when the boy rejected Sandusky's sexual advances, Sandusky threatened to send him home.
Read the entire grand jury presentment.
Sandusky had previously sexually assaulted the boy at the hotel near Penn State where the team stayed prior to home games, according to the presentment.
The boy met Sandusky through the non-profit organization the Second Mile when the boy was 12 or 13, and Sandusky began taking him to sporting events and giving him gifts. He sexually assaulted the boy multiple times, wrestling with him first and then touching him inappropriately, according to the document.
The indictment states, "Sandusky did threaten to send him (Victim 4) home from the Alamo Bowl in Texas when Victim 4 resisted his advances."
Following the game, Sandusky told the victim of head coach Joe Paterno's decision that Sandusky would not become the next head coach of Penn State football. Sandusky retired shortly after that decision.
A spokesperson for the district attorney's office told a San Antonio news station that there is no statute of limitations for a case of this nature and said the district attorney's office and would pursue the investigation.
