Former PSU President Graham Spanier's Child Endangerment Conviction Overturned

Former Penn State president Graham Spanier was due to report to jail Wednesday for a minimum sentence of two months, but his child endangerment conviction was thrown out Tuesday. 

Mark Scolforo of the Associated Press reported the news, noting U.S. Magistrate Judge Karoline Mehalchick made the decision. As a result, Pennsylvania state prosecutors will have three months to retry him under the 1995 version of the state's child endangerment law which was in effect in 2001.

"[Judge Mehalchick] agreed with Spanier's argument he was improperly charged under a 2007 law for actions that occurred in 2001, when he was responding to a complaint about Jerry Sandusky showering with a boy on campus," Scolforo wrote.

Sandusky served as a Penn State assistant coach under late head coach Joe Paterno, who died in 2012. Paterno was fired after Sandusky was arrested in 2011.

An investigation by former FBI director Louis Freeh concluded members of the athletics department and university administration, including Spanier, covered up for Sandusky, who molested multiple children while employed by the school, which led to NCAA sanctions against the Penn State football program. Sandusky was convicted on 45 counts of child sexual abuse in June 2012. 

Scolforo noted Spanier was forced out as university president in 2011 after Sandusky’s arrest.