More Penn State emails surface regarding McQueary's 2001 report of seeing Jerry Sandusky showering with a boy CHARLES THOMPSON, The Patriot-News 06/30/2012 12:17 AM

A CNN report Friday night shed more light on the evolution of top Penn State administrators’ reaction to a February 2001 incident in which then-graduate assistant Michael McQueary caught former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky showering with a young boy in the campus football building.

The report, focusing on a series of emails after McQueary's initial reports about the incident, suggested that shortly after receiving them, then Vice President for Finance and Business Affairs Gary Schultz developed a three-part plan to talk with Sandusky; contact the Second Mile — the youth charity Sandusky founded; and inform child welfare authorities.

But that plan was put on hold, the report stated, Feb. 27, when Schultz received an e-mailed reply from Athletic Director Tim Curley — apparently after a discussion with head football coach Joe Paterno — in which Curley suggests talking with Sandusky directly before alerting any outside authorities.

"After giving it more thought and talking it over with Joe yesterday, I am uncomfortable with what we agreed were the next steps," CNN quoted Curley as saying in an email. Curley indicated, according to the report, that he planned to talk with Sandusky and also contact The Second Mile, but not necessarily the child welfare office if Sandusky cooperated and got professional help.

Paterno testified to a grand jury in January 2011 that when told of the 2001 incident by McQueary, he passed it up along the chain of command to Curley and was no longer involved.

The CNN report then referenced a third e-mail, later on Feb. 27, in which Spanier appeared to voice his support for Curley’s plan.

"I am supportive," Spanier emailed Curley, according to the e-mails obtained by CNN. "The only downside for us if the message isn’t heard and acted upon, and then we become vulnerable for not having reported it," Spanier wrote.

The CNN report did not identify the source of the latest emails. A previously leaked email, presumbaly from the same exchange, quoted Spanier as stating that dealing with the Sandusky allegations internally would be the "humane" way to approach the situation.

Penn State officials never reported the 2001 incident to police or child welfare authorities, and Sandusky was convicted last week of molesting 10 different boys at various times between 1994 and 2008.

The attorney for one of those victims, Thomas R. Kline, said in a follow-up interview on the cable network that the exchange appears to show "a conscious decision to make the wrong decision" regarding Sandusky.

"There could not be a poorer choice made... and more reckless conduct by people charged with the running of the university," Kline said.

Curley and Schultz have been charged with perjury for lying to the Sandusky grand jury about what they knew about the McQueary report, and failure to report suspected child abuse and are awaiting trial in Dauphin County court.

Their lawyers, Caroline Roberto and Tom Farrell, issued this statement to CNN:

"As Governor Tom Corbett stated, ‘If we are going to do this case, we had to have the best possible case to go against somebody like Mr. Sandusky who was … loved by everybody … carried out of the football stadium on the shoulders of his football team.'

"For Curley, Schultz, Spanier and Paterno, the responsible and ‘humane’ thing to do was, like Governor Corbett, to carefully and responsibly assess the best way to handle vague, but troubling allegations. Faced with tough situations, good people try to do their best to make the right decisions."

A spokesman for Paterno’s family told CNN that neither he nor the Paterno family had seen any emails.