A former University of Nebraska – Lincoln chancellor has been found guilty of a misdemeanor for failing to intervene in the pedophile scandal that rocked the Penn State University’s football program.
Former Penn State University President Graham Spanier was convicted of endangering children by failing to report suspicions that former Nittany Lion Defensive Coordinator Jerry Sandusky had been preying on young boys.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reports a Pennsylvania jury deliberated 12 hours on Friday before returning the guilty verdict. It acquitted Spanier of a second endangerment count and a felony count of conspiracy.
Prosecutors accused Spanier of failing to act when assistant football coach Mike McQueary reported in 2001 he had witnessed Sandusky with a young boy in a campus locker-room shower. Sandusky wasn’t arrested until 2011, when police acted on an anonymous tip. Sandusky was convicted the next year of sexually abusing 10 boys. He is serving a lengthy prison sentence.
Spanier served as chancellor of the University of Nebraska – Lincoln from 1991 to 1995.