By Sara Ganim
The Patriot-News
November 17, 2011
http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2011/11/questions_mount_about_mike_mcq.html
It’s a case that should be all about Jerry Sandusky.
But flip on the television, Google “Penn State” and you’re more likely to find a picture of a red-haired assistant coach who was mostly anonymous outside of Happy Valley before last week.
Mike McQueary — what he knew, what he did, who he talked to — has become a major focus of the case of child abuse against Sandusky.
McQueary’s role is important because he’s the key witness in all three criminal cases.
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| Penn State Joe Paterno Mike McQueary |
He’s an eyewitness to Sandusky’s alleged sexual assault of a boy in the football locker room showers in 2002. And the grand jury found his testimony to be more credible than that of two Penn State officials, who are now charged with perjury and failure to report what McQueary says he witnessed in 2002.
But as the pressure of public opinion mounted against McQueary, he was forced to go on administrative leave. And McQueary began to write emails to his friends and former teammates.
He said he did make sure the assault stopped, and said he talked to police and former Vice President Gary Schultz — now charged with not reporting the crime and with perjury — who was in charge of the police force at the time.
The statements only elevated the criticism. Many wondered if he was changing his story in the midst of a scandal that cost Joe Paterno, Penn State President Graham Spanier and two more officials their jobs.
The Patriot-News viewed the handwritten witness statement that McQueary gave after he was found by agents with the state attorney general’s office in 2010. The Patriot-News verified it through a source close to the investigation.
His statement is two pages long, and it makes no mention of McQueary making a statement to police. It says nothing about stopping the assault. It is very similar to the account summarized in the 23-page grand jury presentment.
McQueary wrote that he hastily left the locker room after allegedly seeing a boy about 10 years old being sodomized by Sandusky. Sandusky and the boy saw him, he wrote, but he doesn’t think he would recognize the boy today.
The whole thing lasted about a minute, he wrote.
Neither campus nor borough police received reports from McQueary about an alleged sexual assault in 2002, the departments said Wednesday.
State College Police Chief Tom King said McQueary didn’t make a report to his department. Penn State spokeswoman Annemarie Mountz said campus police also didn’t have any record of a report filed in 2002 by McQueary.
Since The Patriot-News identified McQueary as the graduate assistant named as a key witness in the grand jury presentment, there has been a lot of chatter about whether McQueary’s story was common knowledge within the football program.
Tom Bradley, who was named interim Penn State head football coach following the firing of Joe Paterno, has repeatedly said he won’t comment on what he might have heard because it’s an ongoing case.
The Patriot-News confirmed Wednesday that Bradley was among those who testified before the grand jury in the case against Sandusky.
A summary of Bradley’s testimony is not outlined in the grand jury presentment, but a source close to the investigation confirmed Bradley did appear and testified during the summer.
On Tuesday, in response to a Patriot-News question, Bradley said he did share a residence with McQueary around 2006 or 2007, but Bradley was spending most of his time at his home in Pittsburgh and McQueary was staying there only as an interim option. He was planning to buy a house with his soon-to-be wife.
In 2003, a year after the alleged sexual assault McQueary said he witnessed, he attended the Second Mile Celebrity Golf Classic, which Sandusky organized to raise money for the charity he founded.
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