By Mary Slosson
Aug 25 (Reuters) – A victim of former Penn State assistant
football coach Jerry Sandusky filed a lawsuit against Penn State
late on Friday, saying the university deliberately concealed and
misrepresented his serial sexual abuse of young boys.
Sandusky was convicted in June of 45 counts of sexual abuse
of 10 boys over 15 years, and faces a prison term of up to 373
years when he is sentenced soon. The scandal rocked the storied
Penn State football program and tarnished the legacy of the late
Joe Paterno, the team’s longtime coach.
An independent investigation by former FBI chief Louis
Freeh, commissioned by Penn State, concluded that Penn State
officials were alerted to Sandusky’s abuse, did nothing to stop
it and decided against reporting it to authorities. It said that
the university showed a callous disregard for the victims to
protect a multimillion-dollar football program.
The lawsuit filed on Friday was on behalf of a boy
identified by a grand jury as Victim 1, who testified in court
that Sandusky performed oral sex on him about 12 times when he
was 13 or 14 years old.
Sandusky also had Victim 1, who is now 18, perform oral sex
on him one day and also touched Victim 1’s genitals with his
hands, according to his testimony.
“We look forward to picking up where the Freeh Report left
off,” attorney Slade McLaughlin, who is representing Victim 1,
told Reuters in an email.
“We want to uncover how and why such heinous acts could have
been perpetrated on so many innocent child victims for so long.
The public, in general, and our client, in particular, are
entitled to answers to these important questions,” he said.
Penn State spokesman Dave La Torre said the university could
not comment on pending lawsuits but takes the matter seriously.
“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,” La Torre
said.
The university previously said it wanted to settle any
lawsuits stemming from the scandal “as quickly as possible,” and
had sufficient insurance to do so.
The lawsuit accuses Penn State of negligence, fraudulent
concealment, intentional infliction of emotional distress,
negligent infliction of emotional distress, and aiding and
abetting a civil conspiracy.
(Reporting by Mary Slosson; Editing by Greg McCune and Vicki
Allen)
