Joe Paterno, Greg Schiano Were Allegedly Aware of Jerry Sandusky's Abuse at PSU

Previously sealed court documents released Tuesday allege former Penn State head football coach Joe Paterno knew about sexual abuse claims against former assistant Jerry Sandusky as early as 1976.

According to the Associated Press (warning: graphic content), the documents reported an unnamed accuser, listed as John Doe 150, stated in October 2014 testimony that he spoke with "several adults" about being sexually abused by Sandusky in a shower before going to speak with Paterno directly.

He alleged the coach told him he didn't want to hear about the issue because he had the football season to worry about. A Paterno family lawyer denied the claim, stating the evidence "stands in stark contrast" to the story, according to the AP report.

Janet Pickel of PennLive.com provided the entire group of records released Tuesday. The information is from settlement cases involving Penn State regarding the Sandusky claims.

Paterno died in 2012 at the age of 85. CBS News noted the longtime head coach said in an interview before his death that he hadn't heard about the abuse claims before a 2001 report from another assistant about Sandusky allegedly attacking a boy in the shower.

Greg Schiano is another name mentioned in the latest documents, per Jason Lisk of the Big Lead. The former Penn State assistant, who went on to become a head coach with Rutgers and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, allegedly saw Sandusky "doing something to a boy in a shower." 

"I never saw any abuse, nor had reason to suspect any abuse, during my time at Penn State," Schiano said in response to the allegations, per Adam Schefter of ESPN.

It's important to note that claim is based on thirdhand information, though. Lisk noted that the Mike McQueary deposition—one part of the released documents—included a conversation with longtime Penn State coach and current UCLA coordinator Tom Bradley about what Schiano allegedly witnessed.

"At no time did [Bradley] ever witness any inappropriate behavior," Bradley's representative, Brett Senior, said, per Brett McMurphy of ESPN. "Nor did he have any knowledge of alleged incidents in '80s [and] '90s. Any assertions to contrary are false. When he became aware of 2001 incident, it had already been reported to the university administration years earlier."

Schiano, who currently works at Ohio State, previously turned down an opportunity to talk about what knowledge he might have about the situation, as relayed by Tom Luicci of the Star-Ledger in 2011.

"Because of the situation being what it is, I'm not even going to get into it," he said. "I'm so far removed. Again, you don't need people making commentaries on things like this. It's just a sad thing."

Mark Scolforo of the AP reported in June that Sandusky, who's serving sentence of 30 to 60 years for 45 counts of child sexual abuse, is being granted hearings in August to determine whether he has a basis to overturn the conviction.