HARRISBURG, Pa. — Former Pennsylvania State University President Graham B. Spanier was ordered Friday to spend at least two months in jail and another two on house arrest for endangering children by failing to report signs that Jerry Sandusky was sexually abusing children.

Judge John Boccabella also sentenced Spanier to pay a $7,500 fine and perform 200 hours of community service. Two other former aides, ex-athletic director Gary Schultz and onetime vice president Tim Curley, got similar two-month jail terms followed by house arrest.

“These men are good people who made a terrible mistake,” the judge said. But he also chided them for what he said was an inexcusable failure. “Why no one made a phone call to police … is beyond me.”

The sentences capped what had been the controversial prosecution of ranking university administrators who investigators said had a chance in 2001 to stop a serial sex predator but instead chose to protect the school and their own reputations.

At the center was Spanier, the 69-year-old who once ranked among the nation’s most prominent and longest-serving university leaders. From his ouster after Sandusky’s arrest in late 2011 through his trial this spring, the former president insisted he was innocent and didn’t realize that Sandusky, the longtime assistant to head football coach Joe Paterno, was a threat to children.

A jury in March convicted Spanier of misdemeanor child endangerment – the same charge to which the others pleaded guilty – while acquitting him of a second endangerment charge and felony conspiracy.

Spanier apologized to the victims, the Penn State community and others impacted by his actions. “I deeply regret I didn’t intervene more forcefully,” he said, in a nod to Sandusky’s victims.


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