By Dave Warner
PHILADELPHIA, Jan 1 (Reuters) – Pennsylvania Governor Tom
Corbett said on Tuesday he will file a federal lawsuit against
the NCAA over sanctions it levied against Pennsylvania State
University in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky child sex-abuse
scandal.
Corbett is scheduled to hold a news conference early on
Wednesday at the Nittany Lion Inn on the Penn State campus to
reveal the details of the lawsuit against the governing body of
U.S. collegiate sports, his office said.
In July, the NCAA fined Penn State University $60 million
and voided its football victories for the past 14 seasons in an
unprecedented rebuke for the school’s failure to stop assistant
coach Sandusky’s sexual abuse of children.
The university recently made the first payment of $12
million, destined for a national fund to support the victims of
child abuse. Other sanctions included a ban on the Penn State
football team from appearing in bowl games for four years.
The NCAA could not be reached on Tuesday for comment on the
anticipated law suit.
The Sandusky scandal was revealed by a state grand jury
convened in 2009 by Corbett, then Pennsylvania’s attorney
general. Sandusky is now serving 30 to 60 years in prison on 48
charges that he sexually abused 10 youths over more than a
decade.
Attorney General-elect Kathleen Kane has vowed to probe
Corbett’s handling of the Penn State case. She has told
reporters that she believes that by convening a grand jury in
the case that he failed to protect children by delaying
prosecution for more than two years.
Corbett, a Republican, has said he welcomes an investigation
into how he handled the case.
(Editing by Tim Gaynor, desking by G Crosse)
