PSU prez to face 'questions truthfully'

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HARRISBURG, Pa. -- Penn State President Rodney Erickson received a subpoena last week to testify regarding the investigation into former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, the university said Monday.

The subject or subjects of Erickson's future testimony was not immediately clear, and university spokeswoman Lisa Powers declined to provide a copy of the subpoena, which was first disclosed by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Erickson's "attorney is discussing with the attorney general's office various aspects of the subpoena, including the actual date of testimony," Powers said. "President Erickson intends to fully cooperate and answer all questions truthfully."

A spokesman for the attorney general's office declined to comment.

Penn State said in February it had received a subpoena from the U.S. attorney's office in Harrisburg that asked for records of payments made by trustees to the school, or to third parties on the school's behalf, among other things.

That subpoena told Penn State chief counsel Cynthia Baldwin to preserve all university records and emails, including board and executive session minutes, disclosure reports and computer hard drives. It sought all Sandusky-related records and the hard drives for computers assigned to former university President Graham Spanier, former vice president Gary Schultz and athletic director Tim Curley.

Sandusky, 68, is scheduled to go on trial in June on 52 criminal counts, involving alleged child sexual abuse of 10 boys over a 15-year period. He has repeatedly denied the allegations, which include claims that he sexually assaulted children in his home and inside university athletic facilities.

Curley, on leave, and Schultz, now retired, also are awaiting trial on charges they lied to the grand jury investigating Sandusky and did not properly report suspected child abuse. They deny those allegations.

The Sandusky scandal toppled Spanier, who remains a faculty member, and led the board of trustees to fire longtime head football coach Joe Paterno, who died of lung cancer in January.

Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press

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