Penn State's costs in the fallout of the Jerry Sandusky child abuse scandal are almost $21 million, according to updated figures from the university.
The latest update put the total bill at $20,972,633, as of Aug. 31. The tally reflects the latest invoices the university has received for legal services, public relations firms and consultants.
The university has been updating the figures each month. The latest costs are up from $19.2 million, announced in October, that the university had been billed for through the end of July.Of the nearly $21 million, $11.7 million was billed by the legal team led by former FBI director Louis Freeh and for crisis communications.
About $2.4 million was for legal costs for former university leaders like Graham Spanier, Tim Curley and Gary Schultz, who have been accused of covering up the abuse allegations against Sandusky in 1998 and 2001. Penn State bylaws provide that officers of the university are entitled to be indemnified.
The university also paid legal gills for former university counsel Cynthia Baldwin, whose testimony to the grand jury was used as evidence for prosecutors in the latest indictment against Spanier, Curley and Schultz.
More than $5.2 million was for the university’s legal services and defense, which included payments to Saul Ewing, Duane Morris, Lanny J. Davis and Associates, Jenner & Block LLP, ML Strategies, Lee, Green & Reiter Inc., McQuaide Blasko and Document Technologies Inc.
Spanier, Curley and Schultz are facing perjury, obstruction of justice, child endangerment, failure to report abuse and conspiracy charges. The attorneys for the men have maintained they are innocent.
Curley and Schultz are set for trial in January on perjury and failure to report abuse charges from the original indictment last year.The university has been billed for $1.3 million for what it classified as “other institutional expenses” and $202,079 for external initiated investigations.
The legal fees of the administrators are covered under the university's insurance policies, which are expected to reimburse Penn State for some of the costs.
