Former Penn State University assistant football coach Mike McQueary was awarded $7.3 million by a jury for testifying against Jerry Sandusky, pictured during closing arguments in his child sex abuse case in 2012. McQueary said he saw Sandusky in an on-campus shower with a young boy in 2001, which the university did nothing about. Sandusky is currently serving a 30- to 60-year prison sentence after being convicted of abusing 10 young boys during his time as a coach at Penn State. File photo George M Powers/UPI |
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BELLEFONTE, Pa., Oct. 27 (UPI) -- A former assistant football coach at Penn State University was awarded more than $7 million because the school defamed him for coming forward about seeing Jerry Sandusky sexually assault a boy in a campus shower.
Penn State will have to pay former coach Mike McQueary $7.3 million for ostracizing, isolating and defaming him -- effectively ruining his life -- after grand jury testimony was released with him saying he'd told former head coach Joe Paterno about catching Sandusky in February 2001.
There's a chance Penn State will have to pay McQueary even more money as Judge Thomas Gavin has not yet ruled on his claim as a whistleblower.
McQueary was placed on leave and then fired because he'd spoken out about Sandusky and other school officials. In the last five years, he has been unable to find another job in football and his personal life has collapsed.
"What Penn State has done to Mike McQueary is outrageous," Elliot Strokoff, McQueary's lawyer, told jurors during his closing argument. "He should not have been a scapegoat in this matter, and certainly not for five years."
Penn State's argument against McQueary focused on football, with their lawyers claiming he lost his job as part of normal changes to the football team and that any problems he has now are "the results of his own failures."
Penn State has now paid out more than $93 million to settle claims from 32 people accusing Sandusky of sexual assault, though that could increase with Gavin's ruling on the whistleblower claim expected in the next few weeks.
Sandusky is currently serving a 30- to 60-year prison sentence after being convicted of sexually abusing 10 boys during his time as a Penn State coach.
