Penn State Admits 1st Sandusky Claim Was in 1971

Nearly 40 years before his arrest, Jerry Sandusky was accused of abuse, Penn State legal settlements confirm. School spokesman Lawrence Lokman told the Associated Press the earliest year of alleged abuse covered in Penn State’s more than 30 settlements is 1971. Since his 2012 conviction, the now-72-year-old former football coach has been serving a prison sentence in the sexual abuse of 10 children, but the earliest of the abuses that led to his conviction happened in the 1990s. The university has to-date paid out $90 million to settle the claims against Sandusky. A ruling last week revealed allegations that former Coach Joe Paterno was told of abuses as early as 1976. Paterno said before his 2012 death that he received the first complaint against Sandusky in 2001.