The Penn State Scandal, Piece by Piece
Lastest Update: Jan. 23 - Joe Paterno dies.
The sexual abuse scandal that has shaken Penn State has a host of characters and a history that spans decades. In this interactive, you can explore the timeline of the case and focus on the people involved.
Below are the major events in chronological order. On the left, you can sort the events of the scandal by the people who were involved in them.
Sources: Pennsylvania Attorney General's office; grand jury presentment in investigation of sexual abuse charges against Jerry Sandusky; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Penn State University; the Associated Press. Interactive by Chris Kirk. More on the Penn State Scandal.
Jerry Sandusky
1969
Jerry Sandusky starts his coaching career at Penn State as a defensive line coach.
A sign outside the Second Mile headquarters in State College
1977
Sandusky founds The Second Mile. It begins as a group foster home dedicated to helping troubled boys and grows into a charity dedicated to helping children with absent or dysfunctional families. In the 90s, the program becomes a means for Sandusky to sexually abuse boys.
1994
Boy known as Victim 7 meets Sandusky through The Second Mile at about the age of 10. The boy regularly sleeps at Sandusky's house on Friday nights before home games and attends those games with him. When he stays at Sandusky's house, Sandusky sometimes cuddles with him. They work out and shower together regularly.
1994
Boy known as Victim 6 meets Sandusky at a Second Mile picnic at Spring Creek Park when he is 7 or 8 years old.
1995
Boy known as Victim 5 meets Sandusky through The Second Mile when he is 7 or 8, in second or third grade. He attends several football games with Sandusky. Once, Sandusky takes him to the locker rooms and, after briefly exercising, said that they needed to shower. Uncomfortable, Victim 5 chooses a shower far away from Sandusky's. Sandusky begins to molest him, but the boy leaves the shower and gets dressed. Sandusky never touches him again and stops inviting him to football games.
1996
Sandusky singles out Victim 4, then 12 or 13, during the boy's second year in The Second Mile. Sandusky molested the boy several times in the showers at Penn State, in hotel rooms at the Toftrees Golf Resort and Conference Center in Centre County, where the football team and staff stayed before home football games.
1997
10-year-old Victim 10 begins participating in The Second Mile after a counselor refers him to it because he is having trouble with his home life. After his first summer in the program, Sandusky begins spending time with the boy, inviting him to come to his house. Sandusky would begin wrestling with the boy in the basement and then sexually assault him. Sandusky buys the boy clothes and shoes. Their relationship ends after Victim 10 refuses to perform oral sex on Sandusky in Sandusky's car.
1998
Victim 4 is listed, along with Sandusky's wife, as a member of Sandusky's family party for the 1998 Outback Bowl.
1998
Sandusky takes Victim 6 to the gym when he is 11 years old. After working out, Sandusky persuades the boy to shower with him. While they shower, Sandusky hugs the boy. When Sandusky drops Victim 6 at home, his hair is still wet. His mother finds out that Sandusky showered with her son. She reports the incident to the university police, who investigate.
"I understand. I was wrong. I wish I could get forgiveness. I know I won't get it from you. I wish I were dead."
Sandusky to Victim 6's mother, according to Schreffler's testimony
1998 - May 13
According to Detective Ronald Schreffler's testimony, he and State College Police Department Detective Ralph Ralston, with the consent of the mother of Victim 6, eavesdrop on two conversations the mother of Victim 6 has with Sandusky. Sandusky says he has showered with other boys. When she asks if Sandusky touched her son's genitals, he says, "I don't think so...maybe." The mother tries to make Sandusky promise never to shower with a boy again, but he refuses. She tells Sandusky that he cannot see her son anymore.
1998
According to the testimony of Jerry Lauro, an investigator with the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare, he and Schreffler interviewed Sandusky, and Sandusky admits to showering naked with Victim 6, to hugging Victim 6 while in the shower and that it was wrong. Schreffler advises Sandusky not to shower with a boy again. Sandusky says he will not. The case is closed after then-Centre County District Attorney Ray Gricar decides there will be no criminal charge.
Sandusky at the Alamo Bowl game against Texas A&M on Dec. 28, 1999
1999 - December
Victim 4 is listed, along with Sandusky's wife, as a member of Sandusky's family party for the 1998 Outback Bowl and 1999 Alamo Bowl. When Victim 4 resists his sexual advances, Sandusky threatens to send the boy home from the Alamo Bowl.
Jerry Sandusky with Joe Paterno in 1999
1999 - January
Sandusky retires from Penn State but still holds emeritus status. He remained affiliated with The Second Mile.
2000
Boy known as Victim 3 meets Sandusky through The Second Mile when he is between seventh and eighth grade. Sandusky invites him to go places with him, such as his house, football games and the gym. At the gym, Sandusky and Victim 3 would exercise and shower together, and in the shower Sandusky would pat him, rub the boy's shoulders, wash his hair and give him bear hugs. When staying at Sandusky's house, Sandusky would rub his shoulders, blow on his stomach, tickle him, and touch his genitals through his shorts.
Jim said he had "fought in the [Korean] war...seen people with their guts blowed out, arms dismembered...I just witnessed something in there I'll never forget."
The presentment
2000
A janitor named James Calhoun observes Sandusky in the showers of the Lasch Football Building on campus with a boy, known as Victim 8, pinned up against the wall, performing oral sex on the boy. Calhoun, deeply disturbed, approaches his janitorial coworkers in tears and tells them what he saw. The employees fear they may lose their jobs if they report the incident but persuade Calhoun to tell Jay Witherite, Calhoun's immediate supervisor. Witherite tells him to whom he should report the incident. Calhoun was a temporary employee and never makes a report.
Mike McQueary
2002 - March
Mike McQueary, then a Penn State grad assistant, enters the locker room at the Lasch Football Building. In the showers, he sees a naked boy, known as Victim 2, whose age he estimates to be 10 years old, being subjected to anal intercourse by a naked Sandusky. McQueary immediately tells his father, who advises him to inform Coach Joe Paterno.
Tim Curley, former Penn State athletic director
2002 - March
McQueary tells Paterno that he saw Sandusky molest a young boy. Paterno relays the story to Athletic Director Tim Curley.
Gary Schultz, former Penn State senior vice president for finance and business
2002 - March
Later in the month, Curley and Senior Vice President for Finance and Business Gary Schultz call McQueary to a meeting, where McQueary tells them he saw Sandusky sexually assault the boy. Curley and Schultz say they will investigate the matter.
Years later, Curley testifies during the grand jury investigation that McQueary did not describe Sandusky's conduct as sexual but merely "horsing around." Schultz testifies that he got the impression of sexual misconduct but not anal intercourse, but adds that he and Curley "had no indication that a crime had occurred." The grand jury determined both of these claims to be materially false statements.
2002 - March
Curley and Schultz agree to prohibit Sandusky from bringing any Second Mile children into the football building, a ban that Curley later describes in his testimony as unenforceable. Curley reports the incident to the executive director of The Second Mile, Jack Raykovitz.
Graham Spanier in 2001
2002
Curley informs University President Graham Spanier of the incident with victim 2, and Spanier approves of barring Sandusky from bringing boys into the locker room. According to Spanier's testimony, Curley does not tell him that Sandusky had sexually abused the victim but had rather been merely "horsing around" in the shower.
"I took it at first he was just a nice guy."
Victim 9's testimony to the Grand Jury, according to the presentment
2004
Victim 9 begins participating in The Second Mile, and continues participating until 2008. Sandusky begins to take Victim 9, who is about 11 years old, too football games and gives him gifts and invites him to stay overnight in the basement of his home. Sandusky sexually assaults him regularly for years.
2005 - March
Boy known as Victim 1 says that he meets Sandusky through The Second Mile at age 11 or 12.
2007
During the 2007 track season, Sandusky begins spending time with Victim 1 weekly, having him stay overnight at his residence in College Township, Pa., and taking him to professional and college sporting events. Sandusky began regularly molesting the boy when he stayed over, performing oral sex on him more than 20 times through 2007 and early 2008.
2008
When Victim 1 enters his freshman year at Central Valley High School in Clinton County, he stops seeing Sandusky. Victim 1's mother finds out about the sexual assaults and calls the school to report them. Sandusky is barred from the school district attended by Victim 1 from that day forward and the matter is reported to authorities as mandated by law. Her report leads to an investigation into Sandusky.
2009
After Sandusky sexually assaults boys through The Second Mile for more than 15 years, Victim 1's mother reports the sexual assault of her son and the boy tells police of Sandusky's assaults, prompting the Pennsylvania attorney general to begin an investigation.
2010 - September
Sandusky retires from day-to-day involvement with The Second Mile, saying he wants to spend more time with family and handle personal matters.
Jerry Sandusky
2011 - November 5
Sandusky is arrested and released on $100,000 bail after being arraigned on 40 criminal counts.
Pennsylvania Attorney General Linda Kelly
2011 - November 7
Pennsylvania Attorney General Linda Kelly says Paterno is not a target of the investigation of how the school handled the accusations. But she refuses to say the same for University President Graham Spanier.
2011 - November 7
Curley and Schultz, who have stepped down from their positions, surrender on charges that they failed to alert police to complaints against Sandusky.
Joe Paterno
2011 - November 7
Calls for an ouster of Paterno and Spanier grow in state and beyond. Penn State abruptly cancels Paterno's regular weekly press conference.
2011 - November 9
The Penn States board of trustees fires both Paterno and Spanier, one of the nation's longest-serving college presidents. Earlier in the day, Paterno announced he'd retire at the end of the season. In the end, he didn't have that choice. Penn State students rally and riot in anger over the news.
2011 - November 10
Rod Erickson, iterim president of Penn State, outlines a plan to trustees to "get the university back moving again." The university issues a statement that assistant coach Mike McQueary will not be coaching Saturday's game because of threats that have been made against him. The 32-member board of trustees searches for a new president.
2011 - November 11
Several thousand people gather at Penn State for a candlelight vigil to pray for Sandusky's alleged victims.
Jay Raykovitz, former president and CEO of The Second Mile
2011 - November 14
The president and CEO of The Second Mile, Jack Raykovitz, who has headed the organization for 28 years, steps down.
"Jerry Sandusky is a big overgrown kid."
Sandusky's attorney on NBC News' "Rock Center"
2011 - November 14
Sandusky tells NBC News' "Rock Center" that he is not a pedophile but, in retrospect, should not have showered with the boys he's charged with sexually assaulting. When Bob Costas asks Sandusky if he is sexually attracted to young boys, Sandusky hesitates, then says, "Am I sexually attracted to young boys? Sexually attracted, you know, I enjoy young people. I love to be around them. But no, I'm not sexually attracted to young boys." Commentators call Sandusky's performance unconvincing, and public image experts and lawyers agree that his appearance on the show only further damages his public image.
2011 - November 16
Penn State and State College police say they have no record of McQueary reporting the molestation of Victim 2, which runs counter to a claim McQueary made in an email earlier in the week that he had "discussions with police and with the official at the university in charge of the police" about what he saw.
2011 - November 18
The National Collegiate Athletic Association announces it will investigate whether Penn State violated any NCAA bylaws in failing to report Sandusky's molestations. If proven, the NCAA could penalize the school in various ways, including cutting scholarships, imposing recruiting restrictions, banning TV appearances and postseason play, and applying the "death penalty," which would ban the school from all intercollegiate athletic competition.
2011 - November 18
The New York Times reports that the leaders of The Second Mile plan to dissolve the charity and possibly transfer its programs to a small number of nonprofit groups. Later, the group's new CEO says closing the charity is only one option and no decisions have been made.
2011 - December 7
Police arrest and jail Sandusky after Victim 9 and Victim 10 accuse him of sexually abusing them when they were participants in The Second Mile.
2011 - December 13
Sandusky waives his preliminary hearing, moving his criminal case to Centre County Common Pleas Court. The next date scheduled in the case is Jan. 11, the formal arraignment.
2011 - December 16
Penn State University administrators Tim Curley and Gary Schultz are headed for trial after a preliminary hearing in Harrisburg. Each faces one count of perjury and another having to do with failing to report allegations that Sandusky sexually assaulted a boy in a Penn State locker room shower.
Joe Paterno
2012 - January 22
Joe Paterno dies. On Nov. 18, nine days after Penn State's board of trustees fired him, Paterno was diagnosed with lung cancer. Then he refractured his pelvis in a fall at his home, and his health deteriorated quickly afterward.