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Jerry Sandusky: Ex-Penn State President’s Conviction Tossed

The misdemeanor child-endangerment conviction was thrown out less than a day before he was set to start serving his sentence.

A federal judge threw out former Penn State President Graham Spanier’s misdemeanor child-endangerment conviction less than a day before he was slated to start his sentence, the Associated Press reports. U.S. Magistrate Judge Karoline Mehalchick reportedly ruled that Spanier was improperly charged under a 2007 law for an offense that occurred in 2001, but gave prosecutors three months to retry Spanier under a different 1995 child endangerment law for the same incident. Spanier was originally convicted for how he and his deputies responded to a report of former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky abusing a boy in the team showers. Graduate assistant coach Mike McQueary reportedly saw Sandusky abuse the boy late on a Friday night, but Spanier claimed the incident was characterized to him as “horseplay.”

Spanier was due to report to jail early Wednesday morning to begin serving his minimum two-month sentence before his conviction was tossed. Joe Grace, a spokesman for the attorney general’s office, told the AP Mehalchick's decision was under review. Spanier’s lawyer reportedly declined to comment.