Penn State Has Spent Nearly a Quarter of a Billion Dollars on the Sandusky Case
Penn State’s costs in the Jerry Sandusky child molestation scandal have reached a quarter-billion dollars — and are growing.
The AP reports Penn State’s costs in the Sandusky scandal have risen to at least $237 million. That includes the recent $12 million judgment the school was ordered to pay Mike McQueary, the assistant football coach who first walked in on former PSU defensive coordinator Sandusky and a boy in the showers at Penn State.
Insurers have covered $30 million in costs, per a Penn State financial statement. The AP says the school has paid out $93 million to 33 people who say they were molested by Sandusky, a $48 million fine from the NCAA (that is being directed to anti-child abuse efforts in Pennsylvania), $41 million to lawyers, and $5.3 million to PR consultants and others.
Ex-Penn State football coach Joe Paterno died in 2012. Sandusky remains in SCI Greene, a “supermax” prison in southwestern Pennsylvania. The 72-year-old is serving 30 to 60 years, effectively a life sentence.
Penn State says it is relying on interest from loans made by the university to pay the costs related to the Sandusky case, and is not using tuition payments or donations.
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