Lawyers for Curley, Schultz Pursue Dismissal of ‘Failure to Report’ Charge, Report Says

Attorneys for former Penn State administrators Tim Curley and Gary Schultz are fighting to have a summary charge of failure to report against their clients dropped, citing an expired statute of limitations. 

The Patriot-News reported on Tuesday that Caroline Roberto and Tom Farrell filed documents asking Judge Todd Hoover to drop the charge, though prosecutors have argued that the statute of limitations should not apply in this case.  

‘The blatant attempt to place our clients near the center of the Sandusky maelstrom may have garnered the hoped-for publicity,’ attorneys Tom Farrell and Caroline Roberto wrote, ‘but the choice … has real consequences for the legal survival of the count,’ according to the Patriot-News’ report. 

Former Penn State athletic director Curley and former Penn State vice president Schultz are scheduled to go to trial on Jan. 7 and face a felony charge of perjury for having allegedly lied to a grand jury and a summary count of failure to report suspected child abuse.

The failure to report charge was taken from the incident in which former Penn State wide receivers coach and then-graduate assistnat Mike McQueary said he walked on on Jerry Sandusky abusing a boy in the Lasch Football Building shower. 

When Curley and Schultz were charged by the Commonwealth, the date of Lasch shower incident was reported in the grand jury indictment of Sandusky to have occurred in March 2002. As Sandusky’s trial grew closer, the Attorney General’s office amended the date from 2002 to Feb. 9, 2001, a date they corroborated with evidence in court in June. 

Sandusky was convicted on June 22 on 45 of 48 counts of sexually abusing 10 boys over a 15-year period. He is currently incarcerated in the Centre County Correctional Facility, awaiting sentencing pending 90 days or the fulfillment of all necessary psychological exams.

Judge Hoover recently laid out the timeline to trial for Curley and Schultz.