Key Sandusky victim plans to sue Penn State: law firm

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - A man whose 2001 sexual assault by former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky in a locker room shower lay at the heart of the scandal that engulfed the university is suing it for contributing to the abuse, his lawyers said on Thursday.

Sandusky was convicted last month of sexually abusing 10 boys over a 15-year period.

The man, known as Victim 2, did not testify at the trial, but former graduate assistant coach Mike McQueary testified he had seen Sandusky assaulting a boy about 10 years old in a Penn State locker room shower.

"We intend to file a civil lawsuit against Penn State University and others and to hold them accountable for the egregious and reckless conduct that facilitated the horrific abuse our client suffered," Philadelphia law firm Ross Feller Casey LLP said in a statement on its website.

The firm is representing the unidentified man along with two attorneys based in State College, Pennsylvania, the home of Penn State University, the statement said.

Included on the firm's website were recordings of two voicemails left by Sandusky for Victim 2, who remains unidentified. "Thanks. I love you," Sandusky says in one of them, according to a transcript provided by the firm. Their authenticity could not be verified.

The case against Sandusky, who faces up to 373 years in prison when he is sentenced, rocked the storied Penn State football program, tarnished the legacy of the late Joe Paterno, the team's longtime coach, and sparked a national debate about child predation.

Victim 2 was one of only two of the 10 victims not to testify at the trial.

"Our client suffered extensive sexual abuse over many years both before and after the 2001 incident Michael McQueary witnessed in the Penn State Lasch building shower," the law firm's statement said.

"Penn State has now admitted and there is no longer any question that its top officials could have and should have prevented these acts," it said in an apparent reference to former FBI director Louis Freeh's report on the scandal.

The report, commissioned by Penn State and released two weeks ago, concluded that several high-ranking Penn State officials were alerted to Sandusky's abuse, did nothing to stop it and decided against reporting it to proper authorities.

"Jerry Sandusky's abuse of Victim 2 and other children is a direct result of a conspiracy to conceal Sandusky's conduct and the decisions by top Penn State officials that facilitated and enabled his access to victims," the statement said.

Penn State earlier this week accepted unprecedented penalties imposed by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) as punishment for the child sex abuse cover-up, including a $60 million fine, a reduction in football scholarships, a four-year ban from lucrative post-season games and the voiding of the last 14 years of its football victories.

University trustees said the punishment was difficult but better than an alternative under consideration by the NCAA, which would have banned Penn State's football team from playing any games for four years, according to a school spokesman.

The school and former officials face other legal problems.

Tim Curley, Penn State's former athletic director, and Gary Schultz, its former vice president, have been indicted on perjury charges for allegedly lying to a grand jury investigating Sandusky's abuse. Both have pleaded not guilty.

Immediately after Sandusky's conviction, Penn State invited all of his victims to enter negotiations to settle any claims they might bring against the university.

Penn State spokesman David La Torre said on Thursday: "The University takes these cases very seriously but cannot otherwise comment on pending litigation. President (Rodney) Erickson and the Board of Trustees have publicly emphasized that their goal is to find solutions that rest on the principle of justice for the victims."

(Writing by Barbara Goldberg; Editing by Paul Thomasch and Paul Simao)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/key-sandusky-victim-plans-sue-penn-state-law-232341464--nfl.html

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