Jerry Sandusky Trial: Reports of Secret File May Doom Former Penn State Official

It was only days ago that the cases for perjury and failure to report abuse against two former Penn State officials appeared to be flimsy and teetering. At that point, it all seemed to hinge on the testimony of lone witness Mike McQueary, whose story had not exactly been a bedrock of consistency.

Now, McQueary's testimony is the least of one Penn State official's concerns.

According to a report by KDKA in Pittsburgh, investigators found a secret file kept by former Penn State VP Gary Schultz that monitored Jerry Sandusky and the sexual abuse allegations made against him. Here's more from KDKA:

“Only recently was the commonwealth provided with a file containing documents relating to incidents involving Sandusky,” a statement from the Attorney General’s office says. “The file was created, maintained and possessed by Schultz. Documents in that file are inconsistent with statements by Schultz and his co-defendant, Curley, to the Grand Jury.

“Also, the commonwealth has come into possession of computer data (again, subpoenaed long ago but not received from PSU until after the charges had been filed in this case) in the form of e-mails between Schultz, Curley and others that contradict their testimony before the Grand Jury.”

Those documents filed by the Attorney General’s office late Monday indicate Schultz told so many lies in his Grand Jury testimony that it was impossible to respond to each and every one of them.

Now, that last statement sounds much more like something told to the KDKA reporter by investigators than an independently gathered observation, so take it with the appropriate grain of salt. Nonetheless, realize what we are dealing with here: emails that, if what the investigators are saying is true, constitute hard evidence of false statements to the grand jury.

Friends, I can't believe we have to go over this again, but if you learn one thing from this blog that will help you throughout life, it's this: never lie to a grand jury. Never, ever, ever.

It will be interesting—and probably deeply concerning—to see what was in the file Schultz kept. This obviously hasn't been made public yet, but if he was indeed withholding information about alleged sexual assaults by Sandusky before a grand jury, he will be in a world of trouble.