STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Comments made by Penn State’s former president following the arrests of two top deputies were defended in a court filing Friday as the university again sought dismissal of a whistleblower lawsuit tied to a child sex abuse scandal involving the football program.
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Comments made by Penn State’s former president following the arrests of two top deputies were defended in a court filing Friday as the university again sought dismissal of a whistleblower lawsuit tied to a child sex abuse scandal involving the football program.
University attorney Nancy Conrad argued that then-president Graham Spanier’s remarks after the November 2011 arrests of Tim Curley and Gary Schultz were taken out of context in former assistant coach Mike McQueary’s lawsuit.
McQueary has argued that in calling the charges “groundless” Spanier made him appear untruthful because he was one of the witnesses whose grand jury testimony led to the arrests.
Conrad told the judge Spanier’s full quote was “I am confident the record will show that these charges are groundless and that they conducted themselves professionally and appropriately.”
“A plain reading of the statement reveals that Spanier conveyed a mere opinion that the record would show that the charges were groundless — not that the charges were in fact groundless,” Conrad wrote.