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| FILE - In this June 22, 2012 file photo, former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky arrives at the Centre County Courthouse in Bellefonte, Pa. Penn State said Monday, Oct. 28, 2013 that it is paying $59.7 million to 26 young men over claims of child sexual abuse at the hands of Sandusky. The university said it had concluded negotiations that have lasted about a year. The school said 23 deals are fully signed and three are agreements in principle. The school faces six other claims, and the university says it believes some do not have merit while others may produce settlements. Sandusky, 69, is serving a 30- to 60-year prison sentence at a state prison in southwestern Pennsylvania. |
HARRISBURG, Pa.
(AP) -- Penn State said Monday it is paying $59.7 million to 26 young
men over claims of child sexual abuse at the hands of former assistant
football coach Jerry Sandusky, a man once revered as a university icon
who is now serving what is effectively a life prison sentence.
Nearly
two years after the retired coach was first charged with child
molestation, the school said 23 deals were fully signed and three were
agreements in principle. It did not disclose the names of the
recipients.
The school faces six other claims,
and the university says it believes some of those do not have merit
while others may produce settlements.
University president Rodney Erickson issued a statement calling the announcement a step forward for victims and the school.
"We
cannot undo what has been done, but we can and must do everything
possible to learn from this and ensure it never happens again at Penn
State," said Erickson, who announced the day Sandusky was convicted in
June 2012 that Penn State was determined to compensate his victims.
The
settlements have been unfolding since mid-August, when attorneys for
the accusers began to disclose them. Penn State has not been confirming
them, waiting instead to announce deals at once.
Harrisburg lawyer Ben Andreozzi, who helped negotiate several of the settlements, said his clients were satisfied.
"They
felt that the university treated them fairly with the economic and
noneconomic terms of the settlement," said Andreozzi, who also
represents some others who have come forward recently. Those new claims
have not been presented to the university, he said.
One
client represented by St. Paul, Minn., attorney Jeff Anderson signed
off on an agreement in the past week and the other is basically done, he
said. Anderson counts his two clients as among the three that have been
classified as agreements in principle, which Penn State said means
final documentation is expected to be completed in the next few weeks.
Anderson said his clients were focused on Penn State's changes to prevent future abuse.
"I
have to applaud them, because they said `not until we're satisfied that
no one else will get hurt,'" Anderson said. "The settlement of their
cases in no way heals, in no way lessens the wound that remains open and
the scars that are deep."
Penn State has
spent more than $50 million on other costs related to the Sandusky
scandal, including lawyers' fees, public relations expenses, and
adoption of new policies and procedures related to children and sexual
abuse complaints.
It said Monday that
liability insurance is expected to cover the payments and legal defense,
and expenses not covered should be paid from interest paid on loans by
Penn State to its self-supporting units.
Clifford
Rieders, a Williamsport attorney who negotiated one of the settlements,
said the average payout matched other cases involving child abuse in
educational or religious settings.
Rieders
said the cases raised the specter of embarrassing revelations if they
went to trial, and a university would have to consider the effect on the
victims, its overall reputation, its ability to pay and its wider
objectives.
"There are many considerations
whenever you resolve a high-profile case involving serious misconduct,
and I'm sure all of those and more came into play here," Rieders said.
Sandusky, 69, has been pursuing appeals while he serves a 30- to 60-year sentence on 45 criminal counts.
He
was convicted of abusing 10 boys, some of them at Penn State
facilities. Eight young men testified against him, describing a range of
abuse they said went from grooming and manipulation to fondling, oral
sex and anal rape when they were boys.
The 32
claimants involved in negotiations with Penn State include most of the
victims from the criminal trial and some who say they were abused by
Sandusky many years ago. Negotiations were conducted in secret, so the
full range of the allegations wasn't disclosed publicly.
Sandusky
did not testify at his trial but has long asserted his innocence. He
has acknowledged he showered with boys but insisted he never molested
them.
The abuse scandal rocked Penn State,
bringing down football coach Joe Paterno and leading college sports'
governing body, the NCAA, to levy unprecedented sanctions against the
university's football program.
Three former
Penn State administrators await trial in Harrisburg on charges they
engaged in a criminal cover-up of the Sandusky scandal. Former president
Graham Spanier, retired vice president Gary Schultz and retired
athletic director Tim Curley deny the allegations, and a trial date has
not been scheduled.
