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Paterno family, Penn State end ‘outstanding issues’ years after scandal

More than eight years after the sexual abuse scandal rocked the university, both Penn State and the Paterno family have finally moved on. (Jeff Swensen/Getty Images)
More than eight years after the sexual abuse scandal rocked the university, both Penn State and the Paterno family have finally moved on. (Jeff Swensen/Getty Images)

The Paterno family and Penn State are moving on.

The university and the family of late football coach Joe Paterno have dropped and settled all outstanding legal claims, and the school has agreed to cover certain expenses for the family, they announced in a joint statement on Friday. It’s not clear how much Penn State has agreed to pay.

Paterno’s longtime assistant, Jerry Sandusky, was arrested in 2011 and convicted of 45 counts of child sexual abuse in 2012 — many of which took place at team facilities and were ignored by several high-ranking officials. He was resentenced to the same 30-60 year sentence he initially received last year, which is effectively a life sentence for the 75-year-old.

Paterno was fired in the wake of the scandal, along with multiple other Penn State administrators, and died in 2012 after a battle with lung cancer. The university lost scholarships and had wins vacated by the NCAA, though a settlement in 2015 restored the 111 wins that were lost. Paterno accumulated 409 total wins in a coaching career that spanned 46 seasons at Penn State, and is the winningest head coach in college football.

Friday’s decision ends multiple lawsuits, including one filed by Paterno’s son Jay that claimed the independent, university-commissioned Freeh Report unfairly tarnished his reputation and stopped him from landing another coaching job, per the Associated Press.

“The last eight years have been difficult, made more so by the opinions in the Freeh Report, which my family and I believe was deeply flawed, reached unsupported conclusions about Joe and unjustly criticized the culture of Penn State,” Joe’s widow, Sue, said in a statement. “The University has made clear that Mr. Freeh's opinions about Joe were never endorsed by Penn State. By confirming this position and reaching this understanding, the leadership of Penn State has acted in the best interests of the University, and for this I am grateful …

“A mutual resolution seldom satisfies everyone. The multiple wounds from this tragic period will take a long time to heal but we must begin now. Victims of abuse suffered extraordinary harm from one individual, and everyone associated with the Penn State community has suffered as well. We can’t undo past crimes, but we can never forget the victims of such abusive behavior.”

Penn State has since settled with dozens of Sandusky’s victims and has paid more than $109 million. The university also removed Paterno’s statue from outside of the football stadium, and said on Friday that it has no plans to reinstall it.

“If we’re ever to revisit that, we’ve agreed that that would require mutual approval of the Paterno family,” Penn State spokesman Lawrence Lokman told the Associated Press.

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