Sandusky Sex Scandal Witness McQueary to Sue Penn State
ByPenn State's bad fate is running stronger than the pundits might have predicted as Sandusky blot keeps spreading.
Sandusky Trial's key witness, Mike McQueary, who testified that he saw Sandusky abusing a young boy in the locker room shower in February 2001, has sued the Pennsylvania State University over whistle-blower statute, defamation and misrepresentation.
The whistle-blower lawsuit filed Tuesday claims 'distress, anxiety, humiliation and embarrassment' due the university's treatment.
McQueary wants the university to pay millions of dollars in damages, for allegedly ruining his reputation and portraying him as being the part of the cover-up. He also added that its treatment has crippled him financially and kept him from earning a living through coaching football players-which he loves.
His suit also points at ousted President Graham Spanier as being the one who made McQueary scapegoat to protect then athletic director Tim Curley and vice president Gary Schultz, who are now facing perjury charges, awaiting the trial. Both of them have pleaded not guilty.
Spanier even issued a press statement saying that he had 'complete confidence' in how the two handled the issue.
"Spanier's statements have irreparably harmed [McQueary's] reputation for honesty and integrity, and have irreparably harmed [his] ability to earn a living, especially in his chosen profession of coaching football," states the lawsuit.
McQueary also says in his lawsuit that he was fired from his position because he cooperated with the investigators in their probe. He is seeking $8 million plus reimbursement for legal fees and other benefits he lost when he was suspended from his coaching job, reportsPittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Though McQueary's testimony was crucial in putting Sandusky behind bars for abusing over 10 boys in the period of 15 years, he was criticized for not informing about the shower incident sooner; he waited a day and a half before he approached then head coach Joe Paterno and Curly and Shultz who failed to inform the police.